After steadily improving over the first month of the season, Hawaii’s bullpen fell apart on Friday night.

Nevada rallied with five runs off two UH relievers as Austin Byler hit a three-run triple with two outs in the eighth inning to give Nevada a 7-4 win over the Rainbow Warriors in the opener of a four-game series.

Byler silenced a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 2,173 as Nevada (8-9) took advantage of two walks issued by Hawaii junior Andrew Jones.

Bryce Barger lifted a sacrifice fly off freshman Gordon Cardenas to cut the Hawaii lead to 4-3 in the eighth. Justin Bridgman tied the game with a blooper that fell between Juliene Jones and Kaeo Aliviado in shallow center and Trenton Brooks singled off Cardenas’ glove, bringing Byler to the plate.

The Nevada first baseman wasted no time giving the Wolf Pack the lead, sending the first pitch from Cardenas all the way to the wall in right-center to clear the bases and drop Hawaii to 7-10 overall.

"It’s not rocket science; we’ve just got to pitch better," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "You can’t allow the leadoff man to reach base six times and you can’t walk two batters with a two-run lead. We were playing with fire all night and they finally took advantage of it."

Jones (0-1) took the loss in relief of Hawaii starter Matt Cooper, who gave up a career-high four walks.

Nevada got just three hits off Cooper but worked deep into the count against the Hawaii right-hander, forcing him out of the game after six innings.

His streak of 2423 consecutive innings at home without allowing an earned run ended in the fourth on a two-run single by TJ Freidl to tie the game at 2-2.

"Cooper just didn’t have it today," Trapasso said. "That’s as bad as you’ll see him."

Hawaii has lost four of its past five despite leading 2-0 in every game.

Marc Flores had three hits, including a two-run single in the third to put the Rainbow Warriors in front off Nevada starter Michael Fain, who gave up four runs on eight hits in 523 innings.

Hawaii catcher Trevor Podratz untied a 2-2 game with the Rainbow Warriors’ first home run of the season, clearing both fences in left field in the bottom of the fourth.

Podratz’s sixth career home run was UH’s first in 19 games dating back to last season and Podratz’s first since May 13, 2012, against Sacramento State, when UH and Nevada were both members of the Western Athletic Conference.

"It’s too long though," Podratz said. "The entire at-bat my timing wasn’t there at first, but I got a 3-1 count and tried to see my pitch and don’t be late."

Podratz drove in his second run when he was hit by a pitch with two outs in the fifth, scoring Aliviado to make it 4-2.

Cooper managed to get through the sixth inning by getting Jay Anderson to pop up to second on his 104th pitch.

He allowed just three hits and struck out five, but the four walks and hit batters forced his pitch count to escalate quickly.

"He wasn’t himself, but he kept us in the ball game and gave us a chance," Podratz said. "He wasn’t feeling it, I know he wasn’t too pleased with it, but he grinded through it and battled and gave us a chance and that’s all you can ask."

Aliviado had two hits and scored twice and Austin Wobrock went 2-for-4 with a run scored for Hawaii.

Evan McMahan (1-0) got the win for the Wolf Pack and combined with Adam Whitt to allow only two hits over the final 313 innings.

Whitt tossed two scoreless innings with three strikeouts to earn his fourth save.

Junior Scott Squier (2-0, 2.25 ERA) will get the start for the Rainbow Warriors against Nevada’s Jason Deitrich (0-0, 3.71) in Game 2 of the series Saturday night at 6:35.

E—Caron; Podratz; Hanawahine. DP—Nevada 1; Hawaii 1. LOB—Nevada 9; Hawaii 9. 2B—Meyer; Flores. 3B—Byler. HR—Podratz. HBP—Devencenzi; Flores; Podratz. SH—Kaplan; Caron; Brewster. SF—Barger. SB—Brooks; Byler; Bridgman. CS—Flores. Reached on?CI—Brooks.

HBP—by Fain (Flores); by Cooper (Devencenzi); by Fain (Podratz). CI—Podratz.
Umpires—(Plate): Rickey Scarbery. (First): Mark Evans. (Third): Bill Barnes. T—3:23. A—2,173.