For the first time in four years, Hawaii is getting an idea of what chasing a Big West conference championship feels like.

The Rainbow Warriors were in a dogfight all weekend against top contender Cal Poly, which stormed back after dropping the opener to win the series with a 5-2 victory Sunday.

Hawaii (17-17, 6-3) was held to six hits but briefly had a 2-1 lead in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 975 that braved the rainy weather.

Cal Poly (21-13, 4-2), which is the only school other than Cal State Fullerton to win the Big West since 2009, battled back with two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh and eighth to come away with two crucial wins in Hawaii.

“This was a good series win for us because there’s a reason why they were on top of the Big West,” Cal Poly coach Larry Lee said of the ‘Bows. “They have some experience and make it very difficult on you. Offensively, they put the ball in play, they take care of the ball defensively, are very strong up the middle and they’re a good addition to the Big West.”

Neither team found much success at the plate outside of back-to-back doubles from Brett Barbier and John Schuknecht in the sixth inning that put Cal Poly in front 3-2.

Hawaii starter Alex Hatch gave up only five hits in six innings but issued two key walks that resulted in two Cal Poly runs.

The Mustangs added an insurance run in the eighth inning when Matt LoCoco misplayed a fly ball in center that resulted in a three-base error.

Michael Sanderson drove in Barbier with a sacrifice fly, giving Cal Poly two runs in the game without the benefit of a hit.

“Walks haven’t hurt us in a long, long time but they did yesterday and today,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “We didn’t play bad this weekend. We made a couple of mistakes that cost us and you can’t do that in the Big West.”

Hawaii’s two runs were a season low in conference games.

Alex Fitchett’s RBI double in the fifth inning extending his hitting streak to nine games and he scored on LoCoco’s groundout to give UH a 2-1 lead.

LoCoco, who reached base in his other three plate appearances, hit a two-out double in the third and was stranded.

Marcus Doi was left on third after his two-out stand-up triple in the fourth and Hawaii had two on with nobody out in the eighth inning and couldn’t come through.

“I just feel like our bats didn’t come out real hot today,” said catcher Kekai Rios, who singled twice. “Usually we get those two-out hits and today it just didn’t happen.”

Jared Zill (3-1), the third of three Cal Poly starters who all sport an ERA less than three, struck out four in 62⁄3 innings to pick up the win.

Spencer Howard, who got the save in Saturday’s 5-4 win, walked the first two batters in the eighth to bring the tying run to the plate.

Jacob Sheldon-Collins, who had his nine-game hitting streak snapped, hit into a fielder’s choice for the first out. Eric Ramirez followed with a hard grounder to short that hit Johnny Weeks in the leg, resulting in an automatic out.

Justin Calomeni, the Cal Poly closer who gave up two runs in the eighth inning of Friday’s 6-3 loss to UH, struck out Doi to end the eighth and finished off the ninth for his fifth save.

“It just didn’t work out the way we had it planned these last two (games),” LoCoco said. “We didn’t execute as well as we normally do or like to. We normally get a couple of big hits here or there and they just got them instead of us.”

Hawaii held Cal Poly to seven hits and reliever Matt Valencia struck out three over the final two innings without giving up a hit to remain with an unblemished ERA in 14 2⁄3 innings this season.

UH trails Fullerton by one and No. 13 UC Santa Barbara by half a game in the conference standings heading into a seven-game road trip that begins Friday at Cal State Northridge.

UH plays a single game against Loyola Marymount and then faces the Gauchos, who are 24-7-1 and rank eighth in the nation in RPI.

“At the beginning of the year you ask anybody if Hawaii is going to be 6-3 after three conference series and they’d tell you that you were a liar,” LoCoco said. “We’ve believed in ourselves all year and we still believe we’re going to be real tough for the five conference opponents we have left.”

BIG WEST BASEBALL

Sunday

Cal Poly 5, Hawaii 2

UC Irvine 7, Long Beach State 2

UC Santa Barbara 8, Cal State Northridge 2

Cal State Fullerton 13, UC Davis 3

UC Riverside 5, Utah 3

**Utah 9, UC Riverside 8

Today

**Nevada at UC Santa Barbara

*—overall record includes tie

**—nonconference

CAL POLY 5, HAWAII 2

E—LoCoco. 2B—McKenna, Barbier, Schuknecht, LoCoco, Fitchett. 3B—Doi. DP—Cal Poly 1. LOB—Cal Poly 5, Hawaii 7. HBP—Binning, Fitchett. SH—McKenna, Weeks. SF—Sanderson. CS—George

WP—Hatch. HBP—by Zill (Fitchett). Umpires—(Plate): Chuck Becker. (First): Adam Dowdy. (Third): Jim Garman. T—2:54. A—975.