SACRAMENTO, Calif. » The wave that the Hawaii baseball team was riding after sweeping New Mexico State last weekend has crashed into the sand. The Rainbows dropped their second consecutive game at Sacramento State on Saturday, this time surrendering 18 hits in a 10-3 loss.

First place in the Western Athletic Conference? A distant memory. The Rainbows now sit in third place with an 8-6 record, a full game behind Nevada and half a game behind Sacramento State.

"We just didn’t pitch," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "And that’s something that hasn’t happened to us a lot this year."

No, it hasn’t. The Rainbows entered the week ranked sixth in the country and first in the WAC in ERA at 2.00. Hawaii also led the conference in opposing batting average (.248) and hits allowed per game (8.29).

The Hornets (28-23, 10-7 WAC) jumped on Jarrett Arakawa from the beginning, loading the bases in the first on three singles, but coming away empty when Arakawa struck out Rhys Hoskins and got Trevor Paine to ground into a force play.

It was a temporary reprieve for Arakawa. In the second, he allowed an RBI single to David Del Grande and a two-run triple to Andrew Ayers. A Clay Cederquist sacrifice fly in the third made it 4-0. Then, after the Rainbows (28-20) got two back in the top of the fourth, Arakawa was chased in the fifth after allowing a single and a double to start the inning. Both runners eventually scored against Jon Flinn.

Arakawa ended up allowing six earned runs on 10 hits in four-plus innings.

"We needed Jarrett to pick us up after the tough loss yesterday, but he just struggled," Trapasso said. "That’s just tough luck, because he didn’t seem to have anything from the start and they were really good today. Just tip your hat to them, they were that good."

The 18 hits allowed were a season high for Hawaii. On the other side of the ball, the Rainbows got baserunners against Tanner Mendonca, but couldn’t get the key hit.

To wit:

The Rainbows got runners to second and third with nobody out in the second only to have Zack Swasey pop out. Then, after Max Duval walked to load the bases, Garrett Champion grounded into a double play.

In the fourth, Duval hit a one-out single to knock two runs in and cut the lead to 4-2. Champion then walked. However, Stephen Ventimilia flied out and Kaeo Aliviado grounded out to end the inning.

In the sixth, Aliviado singled in a run to make it 6-3. The Rainbows had first and third with one out, but Pi‘ikea Kitamura grounded into another double play. Hawaii hit into three for the afternoon.

"And we still would have lost 10-7," Trapasso said when asked about the Rainbows failing to get the key hit. "Today, we lost that game because of pitching. It wasn’t our offense."

Ayers went 4-for-5 with two singles and a double in addition to his triple. He came up with the bases loaded in the seventh needing a home run for the cycle, but "only" hit a run-scoring single … and promptly heard about it from the bench.

"They were on me," Ayers said. "And they were giving me crap when I got in, saying I couldn’t get it done. It was fun."

Not so much for Hawaii, which will try to salvage the finale of the three-game series today (10 a.m. Hawaii time). Scott Squier is scheduled to face Brennan Leitao.