Hawaii’s tough finishing stretch with nine of its last 15 games against ranked teams got off to a rough start Friday.

No. 17 UC Santa Barbara drilled two homers and handed Hawaii starter Brendan Hornung his worst outing as a Rainbow Warrior in a 14-2 thumping at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Austin Bush homered in the first inning and drove in five runs, and Dempsey Grover added a three-run homer to end Hornung’s day after four innings.

Hornung (3-7) allowed seven hits and eight runs to take the loss for Hawaii (18-21, 7-6), which has dropped six of its last seven.

“That’s three games in a row where we’ve gotten boat-raced and all three are the same formula,” Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “We didn’t pitch well and we didn’t play good defense and that’s what happens.

The ’Bows have lost their last three games by a combined score of 36-7.

Shane Bieber, who is ranked 83rd in D1Baseball.com’s midseason list of the top 100 college prospects, improved to 8-2 for the Gauchos (27-10-1, 6-4) with seven strikeouts in seven innings.

Hawaii started the game with singles by Matt LoCoco and Johnny Weeks and took a 1-0 lead on Jacob Sheldon-Collins’ sacrifice fly. UH’s only other run came in the eighth inning when pinch hitter Ethan Lopez doubled and scored on an RBI single by Conner Linebarger.

Linebarger picked up his first RBI of the season as one of six pinch hitters used by UH. LoCoco finished 2-for-2 with a walk and a run scored.

Hornung was tagged for a two-run homer by Bush with two outs in the first inning and hit two batters in the second inning to force in a run. Grover’s homer came with two outs in the fourth inning.

“He couldn’t throw anything for a strike other than the fastball and he couldn’t locate the fastball, which is a really bad combination against a really good team and they took full advantage,” Trapasso said.

Hornung pitched into the seventh inning in six of his first eight starts of the season but has failed to go more than six in his last four outings.

“I was really disappointed because in his bullpen midweek he was outstanding and I thought we had turned the corner and were back to how he was pitching,” Trapasso said. “The tough thing is it’s not mechanical right now. He’s trying to do too much and he’s trying to do more than he’s capable of doing. Today he came out there trying to throw 105 miles per hour.”

Trailing 8-1 after four innings, UH used the back end of its bullpen to finish out the game. Josh Pigg allowed six runs on five hits in 22⁄3 innings.

Isaac Friesen allowed one hit in the final 11⁄3 shutout innings.

UCSB has won 14 in a row and 18 out of 19 at home this season.

Hawaii will start Kyle Von Ruden (5-1, 3.01 ERA) in Game 2 today at 11 a.m.

UH has won five of the last six games he has started.

“We need to get a good start out of Von Ruden just to stop this little funk we’re in,” Trapasso said.

BIG WEST BASEBALL

Friday

UC Santa Barbara 14, Hawaii 2

UC Irvine 2, Cal State Fullerton 0

UC Riverside 6, CSUN 4

Long Beach State 14, Cal Poly 3

**UC Davis 9, Pacific 4

Today

Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 11 a.m.

Cal Poly at Long Beach State

Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine

CSUN at UC Riverside

**UC Davis at Pacific

Sunday

Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 10 a.m.

Cal Poly at Long Beach State

Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine

CSUN at UC Riverside

**UCLA at Cal State Fullerton

**–nonconference

NO. 16 UC SANTA BARBARA 14, HAWAII 2

E–Sheldon-Collins, Ramirez. DP–UCSB 2. LOB–Hawaii 6, UCSB 8. 2B–Lopez, Cohen, Muno, Fisher. HR–Bush, Grover. HBP–Calica, Gradford, Plantier. SF–Sheldon-Collins, Adams.

HBP-by Hornung (Calica), by Hornung (Gradford), by Hornung (Plantier).

Umpires–(Plate): Chuck Lyon. (First): Bill Barnes. (Third): Bradley Hungerford. T–2:25. A–210.