Dempsey Grover crushed a leadoff homer in the bottom of the eighth and No. 17 UC Santa Barbara scored three runs in the inning to clinch the series with a 6-3 victory over Hawaii today at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif.

JJ Muno went 2-for-3 and scored two runs for the Gauchos (28-10-1, 7-4 Big West), who handed Hawaii (18-22, 7-7) its seventh loss in eight games.

Trevor Bettencourt (4-1) allowed one hit over three scoreless innings of relief to earn the win for UCSB. Lawrence Chew gave up two runs in 1 1/3 innings to fall to 0-3 for UH.

Eric Ramirez had two doubles and Marcus Doi doubled home Hawaii’s first run in the fourth inning. Ethan Lopez followed with a two-run single to give UH a 3-2 lead.

Hawaii allowed the tying run to score in the bottom of the fourth inning on one of four errors.

Starter Kyle Von Ruden allowed two earned runs on six hits in six innings with two walks and five strikeouts.

Hawaii wraps up a seven-game road trip Sunday in the series finale at 10 a.m.