Maybe last week’s series at UC Santa Barbara was just a tease.

The Hawaii baseball team failed to capitalize on its opening-week success in the Big West Conference as UC Irvine put on a rare offensive show at Les Murakami Stadium in a 15-8 win on Sunday in front of a crowd of 1,661.

Hawaii (14-16, 2-4) has yet to win a conference game against the Anteaters (21-10, 5-1), who completed their second straight series sweep over Hawaii to remain tied for first in the league with No. 5 Cal Poly.

UCI matched the most runs a Mike Trapasso-coached Hawaii team has given up in 13 seasons at home as the ‘Bows plummeted down the standings in Week 2 after winning two of three on the road against the 19th-ranked Gauchos.

"It’s a tough one because we knew we had a big challenge ahead of us," said outfielder Adam Hurley, who doubled and hit one of UH’s two home runs.

Sunday was the highest-scoring game at the Les since UH lost 13-11 to Georgia Southern on Feb. 1, 2007. The season-high 15 runs scored by the Anteaters hadn’t been done by a UH opponent at home since Texas-Arlington in the 2006 Rainbow Baseball Tournament.

"That’s as poor of a pitching game as I can ever remember us having," Trapasso said. "I have to have those guys better prepared in the bullpen when we come into a crisis situation like we did today."

UH lost starter Jarrett Arakawa in the first inning after only one out when the junior left-hander couldn’t continue throwing.

Arakawa, who sat out the entire 2013 season following shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum, missed one start earlier this season.

He gave up a leadoff walk and two one-out hits before taking himself out of the game with a 1-0 count to UCI catcher Jerry McClanahan.

"He’s sore all of the time and sometimes he’s more sore than others," Trapasso said. "We knew we would come into situations where he would have to skip starts and we may have to hold him out next week."

UC Irvine finished the series hitting .324 and scored 25 runs.

"It was one of those aberrations quite truthfully," UC Irvine coach Mike Gillespie said. "We had swung it better lately, but this is the best we’ve done."

Hawaii fell behind 7-0 but battled back against UCI starter Evan Brock (5-2), who took a shutout into the sixth inning.

The ‘Bows had the bases loaded with two outs when Brock’s first offering to Marc Flores was smashed over the right-field wall for Hawaii’s first grand slam since March 29, 2010, when Christian Johnson went deep at San Diego.

Hurley, whose double in the second inning was his first extra-base hit of the season, connected on a solo shot in the seventh to make it 10-5.

Trevor Podratz added a two-run single off UCI closer Sam Moore in the eighth to cut the lead to 10-8, but the Anteaters put it away with five runs in the top of the ninth.

Kaeo Aliviado tied a career high with four hits as Hawaii finished with 12 total to nearly match the 13 it had in the previous two games combined.

"Eight runs on a Sunday should be enough, but it wasn’t because we didn’t want to get ahead of the count," Trapasso said.

Six different pitchers combined to walk nine, with Arakawa (2-1) taking his first loss of the year.

Quintin Torres-Costa retired seven of the first nine he faced after replacing Arakawa, but couldn’t get an out in the top of the fourth.

He allowed a hit, two walks and an RBI double to Castro before getting pulled for Eric Gleese.

Gleese walked the first two batters he faced before Spencer’s two-run single made it 7-0.

After Hawaii closed to two at 10-8, UCI scored five in the ninth off of Juliene Jones and Josh Elms.

Jones gave up three hits and two walks and Elms allowed a bases-loaded walk and a wild pitch for the final margin.

BIG WEST BASEBALL

Sunday
UC Irvine 15, Hawaii 8
CS Northridge 7, UC Riverside 1
CS Fullerton 9, UC Davis 1
Cal Poly 1, UC Santa Barbara 0
*Long Beach State 8, UCLA 5
*non-conference

UC IRVINE 15, HAWAII 8

E—Ventimilia; Baldwin. DP—UC Irvine 3; Hawaii 1. LOB—UC Irvine 8; Hawaii 3. 2B—Sparks; Paulino; Castro; Hurley. HR—Paulino; Flores; Hurley. HPB—Hurley. SH—Rabago. SB—Cooper; Rabago.

WP—Jones; Elms; Gleese. HBP—by Fielding (Hurley). BK—Elms.

Umpires—(Plate): Jake Uhlenhopp. (First): Ruben Candelaria. (Third): Joe Maiden. T—3:00. A—2,925.