Mama said strike you out.

In the mother of all pitching performances, University of Hawaii right-hander Brendan Hornung struck out 14 and retired the final 22 Sacred Heart batters in order in Friday night’s 4-1 baseball victory at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 1,462 saw Hornung tally the most strikeouts for a Rainbow Warrior pitcher since Scott Kuzminsky’s 14 in 2014. The Rainbow Warriors won the first two of this four-game, nonconference series to improve to 8-5.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a better-pitched game in my 16 years here,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “I told him that. It was as good a pitched game in my time here.”

Before the game, Sandra Hornung sent this text to her son: “How are you feeling? Feeling a new strikeout record?”

Hornung’s parents, who live in Corona, Calif., did not attend Friday’s game after traveling to Hawaii for his first two starts in Murakami this season.

“My mom texted me out of nowhere,” Hornung said. “I never got a text like that from her before. It’s that mom power. I replied, ‘I’m feeling great. I think I can hit double digits.’”

Hornung admittedly does not pore over scouting reports, instead relying on Trapasso, who calls the pitches.

“I leave it up to Coach T,” Hornung said. “I throw whatever sign he gives.”

Hornung, who has a four-pitch repertoire, was instructed to open with a fastball and close with a splitter. Hornung threw first-pitch strikes to 24 of 30 batters.

“He was getting ahead with the fastball,” Trapasso said. “He just pounded the zone. And his split was really good. It was down in the zone. The splitter is where he got most of his strikeouts.”

Hornung said: “I stuck with the plan. It felt great, especially when you get ahead in the count like that. I mixed, maybe, three change-ups, but it was all fastballs to get ahead.”

Hornung’s only stress came in the second, when the Pioneers cobbled three consecutive two-out singles to take a 1-0 lead. But Hornung struck out designated hitter Kevin Czapelski to end the threat, and did not allow another baserunner the rest of the way. He struck out seven in a row in a stretch from the fourth inning through the sixth.

“I had to do it for my mama,” said Hornung, who improved 1-2. “She told me to. I can’t let her down.”

The ’Bows scored four runs in Hornung’s three previous starts. They managed only four hits against two Sacred Heart pitchers on Friday.

“We’ve got to do a better job when you’ve got a guy who’s pitching like Brendan was pitching,” Trapasso said. “You want to separate when you get that lead. You don’t want them to hang around. They’re a good club. Anything can happen.”

The ’Bows tied the score at 1 in the second when Josh Rojas singled to center, advanced to second on Alex Fitchett’s groundout, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Logan Pouelsen’s grounder to second.

In the UH third, Dylan Vchoulek walked, stole second and scored on Dustin Demeter’s sharply hit double down the right-field line.

The ’Bows extended the lead to 3-1 on Rojas’ RBI single in the fifth. Rojas had two of the ’Bows’ four hits.

In the eighth, Johnny Weeks tripled to right, then scored when a third strike to Jacob Sniffin skipped past the catcher for a wild pitch.

“We got the runs we needed,” Trapasso said. “But the story tonight was Brendan.”

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