Matt Cooper has proven over his two-year Hawaii career he can dominate teams at home.

Friday afternoon in the Rainbow Warriors’ Big West Conference opener, the senior right-hander showed he could do it on the road as well.

Cooper tossed his second complete game of the season, holding one of the top hitting teams in the country to six hits in Hawaii’s 3-1 victory over No. 14 UC Santa Barbara at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Hawaii (13-12, 1-0) handed the Gauchos (18-4, 0-1) just their second loss in 13 home games.

Cooper (3-1) struck out nine, baffling a UCSB team that entered the game seventh in the country in hitting with a .317 average.

The Gauchos hadn’t scored fewer than two runs in a game all year.

"That might be our most complete game as a team this season," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "(Cooper) had better stuff than he’s had the last couple of weeks and he needed all four pitches today because Santa Barbara is a good club. Offensively, they are scary."

Cooper lowered his ERA to 1.26 and pitched at least seven innings for the first time in his past three starts.

He had command of all his pitches and recorded five of his nine strikeouts looking.

Cooper allowed five of UCSB’s six hits to its two, three and four hitters in the lineup but kept the Gauchos off the board by forcing the bottom five in the order to go 1-for-16.

"The last two games I’ve been thinking a lot, and when I do that I’m just not as good," Cooper said. "I didn’t know this going in, but somebody mentioned that they had a pretty high batting average. I tried not to care about that and keep it as simple as I can."

Hawaii pounded 11 of its 14 hits off UCSB starter Justin Jacome (4-1), who gave up three runs in 61/3 innings.

Hawaii freshman Marcus Doi started his first game since the opener at Texas three weeks ago and hit fifth in the lineup as the designated hitter.

He singled in his first at-bat in the second inning and scored on a two-out RBI single by Adam Hurley.

With two outs in the third, Doi singled again to score Kaeo Aliviado to put UH in front 2-0.

Doi finished with three hits and Aliviado went 2-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.

"(Doi) makes us that much better and that’s stating the obvious when you’ve got a guy hitting .400 that you can put into the middle of your lineup," Trapasso said. "Right out of the gate he’s getting hits, getting RBIs –we know how valuable he is."

Stephen Ventimilia added three hits in the leadoff spot and Marc Flores drove in Aliviado with a two-out RBI double in the fifth to make it 3-0.

Cooper walked two and threw 118 pitches. He retired six of the last seven batters he faced, including a perfect 1-2-3 ninth.

"My fastball command was probably the best later in the game, but I don’t really know why," Cooper said. "I probably focused a little better and kept the ball down in the zone."

Trapasso had relievers Scott Kuzminsky and Quintin Torres-Costa up in the bullpen ready to go if Cooper had allowed a runner to reach base in the ninth.

The Gauchos’ Joey Epperson had two hits to raise his batting average to .476. Freshman outfielder Andrew Calica went 0-for-4 and saw his average drop to .405.

UH left-hander Scott Squier (3-1, 2.16 ERA) will start Saturday’s game that begins at 11 a.m.