The Hawaii baseball team earned a Big West road victory on Thursday, but not a smiley icon.

“It’s a win,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said after the Rainbow Warriors held off UC Davis 5-3 at Dobbins Stadium in Davis, Calif. “We’ll take that, for sure. It might be the most frustrating win I’ve been involved with in a long time.”

Third baseman Kekai Rios collected four of the ’Bows’ 15 hits, and right-hander Jackson Rees overcame a rocky start to improve to 3-0. Dylan Thomas pitched two scoreless innings for his eighth save.

“We didn’t play great,” Trapasso said in a postgame phone interview. “And (the Aggies) are a very interesting and intimidating offense. They’re hard to figure out. They are aggressive and physical. You just feel no lead is safe with their offense and the way they swing the bat.”

In the first four innings, the Aggies reached base on six hits, two walks, two hit batsmen and an error. After Rees yielded a leadoff single in the fifth, Trapasso visited the mound.

“He was all over the place,” Trapasso said of Rees’ pitches. “He was trying to throw the ball a thousand miles an hour. He had no command of any pitches. If you throw to these hitters without focusing on location, you are going to get absolutely hammered.”

Trapasso said he offered this advice to Rees: Throw more sliders.

And this: “Dude, just chill. Breathe. You’re not breathing. Breathing is an important thing for a pitcher. It lowers your heart rate and allows you to focus.”

After the meeting, Rees coaxed Logan Denholm to ground into a double play, then got Caleb Van Blake to pop up to catcher Tyler Murray to end the fifth. Rees allowed only one hit in the final three innings he pitched.

“His overall demeanor and approach changed,” Trapasso said of Rees. “That’s a real sign of maturity. A lot of pitchers can’t do that. The frustration comes in. And when frustration enters, the learning process stops, and you’re not able to make adjustments. That was a pivotal start for him.”

Murray played well behind the plate, throwing out runners attempting to steal second and third. He also applied the tag when Alex Aguiar tried to score on Garret Kelly’s double.

Murray has started 13 games as part of the chain reaction stemming from third baseman Ethan Lopez’s wrist injury. Rios, the No. 1 catcher, has filled in at third. After an early slump, Rios has found his groove. His first single drove in Maaki Yamazaki with the game’s first run. In the third inning, Rios scored from third on a groundout to extend the ’Bows’ lead to 4-2.

“He’s starting to see the ball better,” Trapasso said of Rios, who upped his average to .299. “We all knew it would happen. It was just a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if.’ It couldn’t have happened at a better time. We’re going to need that kind of offense from him the rest of the year.”

Trapasso said he also is hoping to parlay hits into runs. “We made poor base-running mistakes,” Trapasso said. “That’s why the 15 hits only resulted in five runs. We need to do a better job. We should have had six or seven (runs), which would have made it a little more breathable.”

The ’Bows improved to 17-10 overall and 3-1 in the Big West. The Aggies fell to 8-16 and 1-3.

The teams had moved the series opener a day earlier because of anticipated heavy rain today. Trapasso said he will learn this morning whether the teams will be able to play this afternoon.