Loyola Marymount crushes Rainbows

Monday provided a not-so-gentle reminder how much Hawaii isn’t suited for a four-game series.

Playing four games in four days for the first time in a month, Hawaii’s pitching staff was lit up by Loyola Marymount in a 13-2 loss at Page Stadium in Los Angeles.

Niko Decolati crushed a three-run homer in the first inning and Joe Christian added a solo shot in the following frame for the Lions (21-20), who also beat Hawaii (18-20) by a 9-3 score in a midweek nonconference game last year.

“Obviously our guys don’t like playing at Loyola and we’ll have to take a look at what we can do,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “It’s something we haven’t had much success with.”

Hawaii is 0-5 in midweek games on the road since joining the Big West in 2013.

None of those losses were as bad as Monday’s defeat that saw LMU lead 11-0 after the third inning.

It got so rough for UH that it had to bring in senior reliever Cody Culp for an 11-0 game.

Patrick Martin (1-2) struck out the side in the first inning but also hit two batters, gave up a walk and allowed the homer to Decolati.

Martin allowed three more hits in the second inning and gave up six runs over two frames.

Kyle Mitchell, who had a 2.84 ERA coming in, allowed five runs on four hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning and couldn’t get out of the third, forcing UH to use Culp.

Hawaii wound up using six different pitchers in the game and LMU scored all of its runs in the first five innings.

“I obviously haven’t done a good enough job preparing us for the last two days,” Trapasso said. “Today we didn’t give ourselves a chance with all of the freebies.”

Lions freshman Codie Paiva (1-0), who was teammates last year with UH catcher Kekai Rios at Kamehameha, picked up the win in his first collegiate start.

Paiva worked six innings and gave up two runs on six hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.

Matt LoCoco’s two-run triple in the fifth inning ended Paiva’s run of 15 2⁄3 scoreless innings to start his career.

He had appeared in seven games and struck out 12 in 11 1⁄3 innings, allowing only five hits before facing Hawaii.

LoCoco’s triple was his fourth of the season and the most by a UH player since Sean Montplaisir had five in 2011.

LoCoco finished 2-for-3 and Jacob Sheldon-Collins had two hits in three at-bats to raise his season average to .401.

Ethan Lopez went 2-for-4 with a double and scored a run and Chayce Ka’aua singled and scored.

Hawaii finished with eight hits and is 1-5 this season when playing the fourth game of a four-day stretch.

“We have to be better all around than what we were the last couple of days,” Trapasso said. “Everybody has to do a better job and it starts with me.”

The Rainbow Warriors will remain on the road and have three days off before opening a three-game series at nationally ranked UC Santa Barbara.

The Gauchos were swept by Cal Poly and dropped 10 spots to No. 21 in the latest Collegiate Baseball poll.

Nine of Hawaii’s final 15 games are against teams among the top 28 vote-getters in that same poll.