Another potential win against a nationally-ranked team fell apart late for the Hawaii baseball team.

Now a month into the season, the Rainbow Warriors find themselves four games under .500 following an 8-6 loss to No. 13 Houston in the final game of the Houston College Classic on Sunday at Minute Maid Park.

Hawaii sits at 6-10 overall with nine games remaining before the start of Big West Conference play after watching a four-run lead in the sixth inning disappear against the Cougars (9-7).

It’s the third time in five games against ranked teams that Hawaii has missed opportunities to capture resume-building wins against quality opponents.

UH blew one-run leads in the eighth inning or later of two separate games against Oregon, which is ranked No. 9 and climbing at 13-2 overall, with one loss coming against Hawaii.

Houston will likely fall in the rankings after losing to No. 5 LSU and No. 11 Texas A&M in its own tournament this weekend, but was on the verge of getting swept.

Hawaii knocked out starter Aaron Garza after 32/3 innings and led 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth when the Cougars scored seven runs over the next there frames to pull out the win.

UH dropped to 1-7 in games decided by two runs or less.

"You had to be there to see the way our kids fought and scratched and clawed and competed and that’s all you can ask," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "It was a sloppy game on both sides and unfortunately we had the lead but we couldn’t hold it, but it was more of a case of Houston earning it. They put the hits together got the big hits they needed."

Hawaii finished 1-2 in the tournament and 2-5 on its seven-game road trip. After they were outscored 36-21 in four games by Pepperdine, UH played Baylor, Nebraska and Houston in three games decided by a combined four runs.

"I was very disappointed with the way we played last week against Pepperdine," Trapasso said. "This weekend we played better. We didn’t play flawless and we’re in a position when we’re playing these regional teams that are so talented that you almost have to play a perfect game, and nobody plays a perfect game, but yet we played so much better with so much more toughness."

Matt Miller, starting in right field for the second time this season, went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored as Hawaii outhit Houston 10-9.

Senior Jarrett Arakawa started his first game of the season and gave up a run on two hits with a walk in two inning as Houston led 1-0 early.

Kaeo Aliviado’s two-run single with two outs in the third gave UH its first lead and the ‘Bows added to it to go up by four runs.

Junior Kyle Von Ruden retired nine straight in relief of Arakawa before letting up a leadoff triple to start the sixth inning.

Houston eventually cut it to 5-2 and had three men on with two outs when Justin Montemayor cleared the bases with a triple to tie the game at 5-all.

It stayed that way into the bottom of the seventh. With an entire bullpen fresh, Trapasso went to sophomore Quintin Torres-Costa, who had started games in the first three series but was 0-2 with an ERA near 12.

Torres-Costa hit the first guy he faced on an 0-2 pitch but eventually had two outs with a runner on first. A stolen base moved the runner into scoring position and Josh Vidales and Jacob Campbell each came up with two-out RBI hits to give Houston a 7-5 lead.

"Boy we feel for Quintin because he’s in Murphy’s Law where anything that can go wrong does," Trapasso said. "He’s got to work his way through this because we need him."

Hawaii cut it to 7-6 in the eighth on a two-out infield single by J.J. Kitaoka that scored Jordan Richartz.

The Cougars got one back in the bottom of the inning when third baseman Alex Sawelson couldn’t field a two-out grounder that went for an error. Cody Culp then walked in an unearned run for the game’s final margin.

"Like I said, our kids battled. (Sawelson) made one of those physical errors that made that run disappointing, but if we continue with that toughness we showed, we’ll start beating these ranked teams," Trapasso said." There’s no margin of error and there’s never a breather because every darn game we’re playing is against an outstanding team because of this crazy guy who made the schedule."

Hawaii flies home Monday and will practice Tuesday and Wednesday before hosting Oklahoma (12-6) for a four-game series starting on Thursday.

Matt Miller, starting in right field for the second time this season, went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored as Hawaii outhit Houston 10-9.

Senior Jarrett Arakawa started his first game of the season and gave up a run on two hits with a walk in two innings as Houston led 1-0 early.

Kaeo Aliviado’s two-run single with two outs in the third gave UH its first lead and the ‘Bows added to it to go up by four runs.

Junior Kyle Von Ruden retired nine straight in relief of Arakawa before letting up a leadoff triple to start the sixth inning.

Houston eventually cut it to 5-2 and had three men on with two outs when Justin Montemayor cleared the bases with a triple to tie the game at 5.

It stayed that way into the bottom of the seventh. With an entire bullpen fresh, Trapasso went to sophomore Quintin Torres-Costa, who had started games in the first three series but was 0-2 with an ERA near 12.

Torres-Costa hit the first guy he faced on an 0-2 pitch but eventually had two outs with a runner on first. A stolen base moved the runner into scoring position and Josh Vidales and Jacob Campbell each came up with two-out RBI hits to give Houston a 7-5 lead.

"Boy we feel for Quintin because he’s in Murphy’s Law, where anything that can go wrong does," Trapasso said. "He’s got to work his way through this because we need him."

Hawaii cut it to 7-6 in the eighth on a two-out infield single by J.J. Kitaoka that scored Jordan Richartz.

The Cougars got one back in the bottom of the inning when third baseman Alex Sawelson couldn’t field a two-out grounder that went for an error. Cody Culp then walked in an unearned run for the game’s final margin.

"Like I said, our kids battled. (Sawelson) made one of those physical errors that made that run disappointing, but if we continue with that toughness we showed, we’ll start beating these ranked teams," Trapasso said." There’s no margin of error and there’s never a breather because every darn game we’re playing is against an outstanding team because of this crazy guy who made the schedule."

Hawaii flies home Monday and will practice Tuesday and Wednesday before hosting Oklahoma (12-6) for a four-game series starting Thursday.

HOUSTON 8, HAWAII 6

E–Kitaoka, Sawelson, Survnce, Wong 2, Julks. DP– Hawaii. LOB–Hawaii 9, Houston 5. 2B–Baldwin, Miller, Sheldon-Collins, Iriart 2. 3B–Montemayor, Taylor. HBP–Kitaoka, Wong, Wisz. SH–Taylor. SB–Survance. CS–Survance.

WP–Romero 2. HBP–by Romero (Kitaoka), by Torres-Costa (Wisz), by Culp (Wong). BK–Arakawa, Torres-Costa. PB–Campbell. Umpires–(Plate): Ryan Morehead (First): Michael Banks. (Third): Doug Williams. T–2:40. A–10, 866.