After the final out of last night’s 16-1 rout, the Hawaii Rainbows were slow to run out on the field to celebrate the victory.

It seemed they would have rather continued hitting.

Who could blame them after a season-high output in runs. Hawaii won its Western Athletic Conference opener over Sacramento State by its largest margin of victory since a 21-6 win at New Mexico State in April 2007.

Kolten Wong went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs and Breland Almadova doubled twice and drove in three runs to send a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,330 home early.

The game was called after the top of the seventh inning due to the league’s 10-run mercy rule.

"You just hope the guys stay hot," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "You’ve got to make your guys understand that’s only the first game of a four-game series and (Sacramento State) can pitch. You’re not going to see very many games like that."

The Rainbows (15-14, 1-0) have scored 40 runs in their past three games, capped off by their best performance of the season last night. Eight of Hawaii’s 14 hits went for extra bases. Garrett Champion finished a home run short of the cycle with three hits and three runs scored.

Jeff Van Doornum went 2-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored and Pi‘ikea Kitamura hit a two-run single as part of a nine-spot in the sixth inning that put Hawaii up 16-1.

"That’s the kind of pitching performance and offensive performance that we look for," Kitamura said. "(Matt) Sisto went out there and threw a great game and we didn’t have to go to the bullpen at all and can now go into the doubleheader (today) fully loaded."

Sisto (2-4) went the distance, tossing a two-hitter with two walks and seven strikeouts. The only run he gave up was unearned as he lowered his ERA to 2.33.

"We got 23 conference games left and if we score 16 runs every time, we should be fine," Sisto said. "The offense went off tonight and hats off to them; they made it really easy to go out there and pitch."

Hornets starter Karl Maas dropped to 2-3, giving up 10 hits and 12 runs in five innings. The Rainbows tagged him for six in the first and made it 7-0 in the second on Wong’s fifth homer of the season.

The blast was Wong’s 23rd of his career, tying Joey Meyer for fourth on the school’s all-time list.

Maas retired 10 of the next 11 batters he faced, but couldn’t record an out in the sixth as Hawaii’s first eight hitters all came around to score.

The Rainbows batted around twice in the game, sending 14 batters to the plate in the sixth.

Almadova hit a two-run double and Kitamura had a two-run single to give UH the necessary 10-run lead to put the mercy rule in effect.

First baseman David Del Grande had the only two hits of the game for the Hornets (9-21, 0-1), who lost head coach Reggie Christiansen’s WAC debut.

The series continues today with a doubleheader, starting at 3:05 p.m.