Nobody was happier that Jarrett Arakawa was on a pitch count than Oklahoma coach Pete Hughes.

The Hawaii left-hander frustrated a physically imposing Sooners lineup for five innings, but could only throw 52 pitches as he works his way back from offseason shoulder surgery.

Once he left the game, Oklahoma took control against a shaky UH bullpen and scored all of its runs over the final three innings to defeat Hawaii 6-3 and win the series at Les Murakami Stadium.

Arakawa received a nice ovation from the 1,983 in attendance when he walked off the field in the fifth inning after giving up up only two hits without a walk.

The five UH relievers to follow didn’t come close to duplicating his success, combining to allow six runs on seven hits with five walks in four innings.

Oklahoma’s bullpen allowed only five runs in 16 innings all series.

"On paper, our strength coming in was the depth of our bullpen and to have that when you don’t have to bank on four great starts is a luxury," said Hughes, whose team improved to 15-8 overall. "I was just happy to see (Arakawa) get out of there. If you’re not super disciplined with that guy he’s going to carve you up, and that’s what he did to us."

Outside of junior Cody Culp, who earned a two-inning save in Hawaii’s only win of the series, the rest of Hawaii’s bullpen combined to allow 12 hits and eight runs in nine innings with a staggering nine walks in the series.

Five of those walks came in a two-inning span on Sunday as Hawaii (7-13) fell apart to lose for the eighth time in its last 10 games.

Reliever Josh Pigg walked the first two batters of the seventh and both came around to score. The first four Sooners reached base in the eighth inning, with three getting on via the walk, as Hawaii had nobody out of the bullpen capable of putting up a zero.

"Today we didn’t do the things we pride ourselves on doing well," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "Those guys who came out of the pen aren’t throwing enough strikes and collectively they’re killing us in those situations."

Hawaii has scored three runs or fewer in seven of its past 10 games and isn’t playing well enough to overcome that with pitching and defense.

The Rainbow Warriors had a chance to get out of the seventh inning with the game still tied, but third baseman J.J. Kitaoka made a wide throw to first on a routine ground ball to allow the go-ahead run to score.

UH failed to get outs on two different Oklahoma bunts that led to runs scored and misplayed a fly ball in shallow left that led to another Sooners run.

In total, Oklahoma scored five times in two innings with only two balls leaving the infield.

"We’re making too many defensive mistakes," Trapasso said. "All freshman and rookie mistakes and all based on communication. We’ve got to shore up those defensive things, because If you’re not swinging the bat, you can’t make those defensive mistakes and you can’t walk guys."

Arakawa looked like his 2012 self, when he posted a 2.88 ERA in 97 innings as a sophomore.

However, Trapasso said he nearly pulled him before the game started because he was sore, and his status for next week is questionable despite the masterful outing.

OKLAHOMA 6, HAWAII 3

E–Neuse, Carpenter, Kitaoka. DP–Oklahoma 1, Hawaii 2. LOB–Oklahoma 6, Hawaii 9. 2B–Shaw. HBP–Baldwin, Linebarger 2. SH–Richartz. SF–Kitaoka. CS–Frazier.

Pigg faced 2 batters in the 7th.
Valencia faced 1 batter in the 8th.
Hatch faced 2 batters in the 8th.
Hernandez faced 3 batters in the 9th.
WP–Arakawa. HBP–by Copping (Baldwin), by Copping (Linebarger), by Hernandez (Linebarger).
Umpires–(Plate): Frank Plugeradt. (First): Billy Van Raaphorst. (Third): Mel Gatson. T–2:45 A–1,983.