A typical Friday pitching duel in the Big West went Cal State Northridge’s way.

Angel Rodriguez got the better of Hawaii’s Brendan Hornung, allowing one run over seven innings, and Yusuke Akitoshi drove in both CSUN runs in a 2-1 victory at Matador Field in Northridge, Calif.

Akitoshi’s two-out RBI double in the fourth inning was the difference for the Matadors (23-13, 2-8), who handed Hawaii (17-18, 6-4) its third consecutive loss.

CSUN closer Conner O’Neil stranded the tying run on third for Hawaii in the bottom of the eighth and finished off the ninth to earn his seventh save.

The loss was Hawaii’s first in its past 10 conference games on the road.

“You’ve got to tip your cap to them because they played really well and Rodriguez was really good,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “They knew their backs were against the wall and that they had to come out and get after it.”

Johnny Weeks doubled for his first extra-base hit of the season and finished 2-for-4, scoring Hawaii’s only run.

Marcus Doi added two hits and Kekai Rios singled to put the tying run on base to lead off the top of the eighth.

Chayce Ka’aua bunted Rios into scoring position with one out to give UH two shots at tying the game, but O’Neil came on in relief and struck out Alex Fitchett and got Josh Rojas to fly out to left to end the threat.

“What’s frustrating is we still had a chance to win and we still have to score more than one run,” Trapasso said.

Hornung (3-6) failed to go past six innings for the third straight start, but Trapasso said he was back to form from earlier in the season.

CSUN jumped on Hornung with two hits in the first inning but couldn’t score and pushed across one run in the second with three hits.

Akitoshi’s double in the fourth inning was CSUN’s sixth hit of the game and the Matadors got only two more the rest of the way.

Hornung gave up seven hits and two walks and struck out five. The one run allowed in the second inning came after CSUN loaded the bases with nobody out.

“Brendan’s good stuff was back and while he was in trouble those first couple of innings he managed to give us six innings and two runs,” Trapasso said. “I’ll take six innings and two runs every time and frankly, he lobbied to go out there for the seventh, but he was at 98 stressful pitches and I just felt it was better to go with (Lawrence) Chew against the lefties.”

Chew and Cody Culp combined to throw two scoreless innings to give Hawaii a chance, but it could only push across a run in the seventh.

Weeks led off with a double and Jacob Sheldon-Collins singled to put runners at the corners.

Rodriguez faked a throw to third and went to first to get Sheldon-Collins caught in a rundown. Weeks scored on the play, but CSUN kept a one-run lead while emptying the bases.

Hawaii will send senior Kyle Von Ruden (5-1, 2.78 ERA) to the mound today at 10 a.m.

Von Ruden took a batted ball off of his throwing hand last week against Cal Poly and pitched only 3 2/3 innings, but should be at full strength today.

“He feels good and I like him with the kind of stuff he has going up against these guys,” Trapasso said.

Friday

UC Davis 9, UC Irvine 6

Cal State Northridge 2, Hawaii 1

UC Riverside 4, Long Beach State 3

Cal Poly 7, UC Santa Barbara 0

**Cal State Fullerton 12, UNLV 4

Today

UC Davis at UC Irvine, 10 a.m.

Hawaii at Cal State Northridge, 10 a.m.

Long Beach State at UC Riverside, 3 p.m.

UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly, 3 p.m.

** UNLV at Cal State Fullerton, 3 p.m.

Sunday

UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly, 10 a.m.

UC Davis at UC Irvine, 10 a.m.

Hawaii at Cal State Northridge, 10 a.m.

Long Beach State at UC Riverside, 10 a.m.

** UNLV at Cal State Fullerton, 10 a.m.

*–overall record includes tie

**–nonconference

E–Weeks. 2B–Weeks, Akitoshi. 3B–none. DP–CSUN 1. LOB–Hawaii 2, CSUN 9. HBP–none. SH–Ka’aua. SF–Akitoshi. SB–Akitoshi, Toerner, Bumstead. CS–Doi.

WP-O’Neil. HBP–none. Umpires–(Plate): Anthony Norris. (First): Johnny Pineda. (Third): Gary Gilman . T–2:27. A–431.