Hawaii has found different ways to win games in the first half of the Big West season.

The long ball wasn’t one of them until Saturday.

Freshman Kekai Rios launched his first career home run to break a 10th-inning tie and the Rainbow Warriors got a much-needed 6-5 victory over Cal State Northridge to even the series at Matador Field in Northridge, Calif.

Hawaii (18-18, 7-4) had gone 25 games without a home run until Rios’ blast off CSUN closer Connor O’Neil (4-3) put the ’Bows ahead after the Matadors tied the game in the bottom of the eighth.

Senior Matt Valencia (3-0) struck out three over the final two innings to pick up the win and snap UH’s three-game losing streak.

“We were able to get it done,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “That was a big win for us. That’s a tough environment to play in when the wind is howling out like that.”

UH remains in the Big West hunt and can finish just a half-game out of first place at the midway point with a victory today at 10 a.m.

Left-hander Alex Hatch (3-4, 4.65 ERA), who has given up two runs or fewer in three of his past five starts, will have his work cut out for him against a Matadors team that hit two homers on Saturday.

Branden Berry’s team-leading seventh dinger gave CSUN (13-24, 2-9) a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning and Kyle Smith led off the sixth with a solo shot off Hawaii starter Kyle Von Ruden to push CSUN ahead 3-2.

“With the wind blowing out the way we expect it to be again (today), we need to win a game with some offense,” Trapasso said. “(Hatch) has got to be able to command the fastball against these guys, because if you leave anything up in the zone you’ll get in trouble.”

Matt LoCoco, who drew four walks in the game, tied it at 3 in the seventh with an RBI double off CSUN starter Kenny Rosenberg.

Jacob Sheldon-Collins and Eric Ramirez followed with back-to-back RBI singles to push Hawaii in front 5-3.

Von Ruden, who allowed four runs on eight hits in 61⁄3 innings, gave up a leadoff walk in the seventh that resulted in one CSUN run.

Pinch hitter Elias Orona singled home the tying run in the eighth inning off Cody Culp, who gave up three straight hits with one out.

Valencia struck out the side in the ninth inning to force extra frames and got the game-ending double play after issuing a walk, his only baserunner.

Valencia faced the minimum over two innings and still hasn’t given up an earned run in 162⁄3 innings this season.

“We were going to roll the dice with our closer out there in a tie game and I was going to leave him in until we either won it or lost it,” Trapasso said. “Matty was good.”

Sheldon-Collins finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Johnny Weeks singled twice and scored two runs for Hawaii, which had 11 hits.

Rios, who increased his batting average to .349, finished a triple shy of the cycle and posted the fourth three-hit game of the season to extend his hitting streak to six games.

His homer was just the fourth UH has hit all year.

“He got a hanging slider and hit it good and got it into the jet stream to make it a home run,” Trapasso said. “(CSUN) got one of those, so we just equaled it with one of our own.”