IRVINE, Calif. » A frustrating weekend for Hawaii’s baseball team ended Sunday with the Rainbow Warriors’ most lopsided defeat in five weeks.

UH failed to get anyone on base in the first six innings of UC Irvine’s 9-0 rout in Big West Conference play in front of 928 at Anteater Ballpark.

The Rainbows (7-21, 2-4 BWC) will remain in California for the rest of the week to play UCLA in a nonconference game Tuesday before going to San Luis Obispo for a three-game series next weekend against Cal Poly.

Both opponents are ranked in all four major polls. UCLA’s highest placement is 10th in Baseball America’s and USA Today/ESPN’s polls, while Cal Poly’s best ranking is 17th in Collegiate Baseball’s poll.

"We just have to play better," UH coach Mike Trapasso said after Hawaii’s fourth consecutive loss and fifth in seven games. "Offensively, we never put up a fight. We didn’t pitch well enough. We didn’t play well enough defensively.

"We’re not into moral victories and we’re not into high school, take-things-away-from series. You have to play better or you’re not going to win with the schedule we play."

The Anteaters (20-8, 3-3) combined stifling pitching with powerful hitting for their fourth successive win.

Right-handed starter Andrew Morales amassed six strikeouts and nine groundouts in six perfect innings. UH freshman Andre Real, who attended high school nearby, ended Morales’ perfect game by starting the seventh with a line-drive single past third baseman Taylor Sparks.

"Morales just threw strikes," Trapasso said. "He’s a really good three-hole guy who just pounds the zone. We didn’t have an answer for him."

Morales received immediate offensive support. With two outs and a runner at first base in the first inning, UH third baseman Pi‘ikea Kitamura fielded Ronnie Shaeffer’s ground ball and tried to get a forceout.

But Kitamura’s throw to second baseman Stephen Ventimilia sailed into short right-center field. The next batter, Sparks, pounded a 2-1 fastball over the left-field fence to give Irvine a 3-0 lead. All the runs were unearned.

In the third inning, Sparks golfed a low-and-outside pitch off the scoreboard for a two-run home run during a three-run rally against UH right-hander Matt Cooper, who made his shortest start of the season.

In his three innings, Cooper allowed six runs on five hits.

The Anteaters sent eight batters to the plate in the fourth to add three more runs on two hits, two walks and a hit batter. But Trapasso believed that the Rainbows could have defused each of Irvine’s rallies.

With one out and a runner on second base in the third inning, Irvine’s Conner Spencer hit a single off Cooper’s glove to bring home Dominique Taylor. Shaeffer then hit another grounder to Kitamura, who made an accurate throw to Ventimilia to get the second out. But Shaeffer beat the second baseman’s throw to first.

"I thought we had a double play in the third inning," Trapasso said. "I thought he was out."

Sparks then hit his second homer of the game, his third of the series and his fifth of the season.

In the fourth inning, Irvine had runners at first and second when Chris Rabago hit another grounder to Kitamura, who threw to Ventimilia for the force out at second. But Ventimilia had trouble gripping the ball and Rabago beat his throw to first base.

"We have a double play in the fourth inning," Trapasso said, "where Steve has a hard time getting it out of his glove."

Those plays, combined with Kitamura’s early throwing error, allowed Trapasso to ponder what might have been.

"It’s such a fine line," he said. "In reality, we make three plays and, honestly, we’re still playing."