Cal State Fullerton parlayed Hawaii’s generosity into a 6-3 baseball victory Friday at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif.

“We gave up 10 freebies,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said. “That was the ballgame.”

The Titans reached base on seven walks, two hit batsmen and an error. A second UH error on an errant pickoff throw at second base led to a CSUF run.

By winning the opener of the three-game series, the Titans improved to 18-18 and vaulted into first place in the Big West at 5-2. The ’Bows tumbled to 20-14 and into a second-place tie with UC Irvine at 6-4.

CSUF second baseman Hank LoForte went 3-for-4 and catcher Daniel Cope drove in three runs, including two on a seventh-inning homer. But Trapasso said the game was decided from 60 feet, 6 inches.

“I’m mortified by the way we pitched, and it’s a shame,” Trapasso said. “We couldn’t throw a strike all night. … We were behind in the count all night. Leadoff hitters were on all night. And to be honest with you, how we held them to only six runs the way we pitched is pretty amazing. That was as poorly a pitched game as we’ve had in a long time.”

UH right-hander Jackson Rees exited after 4 1/3 innings. Trapasso said Rees had the right stuff, but not the correct aim.

“His stuff was outstanding,” Trapasso said of his ace. “His stuff was almost unhittable. But for him tonight, his stuff was almost uncontrollable.”

Rees relinquished five hits, three walks and four runs (two of them earned). But he had thrown 78 pitches when he was pulled with a 2-0 count on Chris Prescott, a runner on first, and the score tied at 3 in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“He can’t go deep in counts and have such high pitch counts in games,” Trapasso said of Rees. “It’s going to catch up to you. You can’t keep going to your bullpen early on a Friday night.”

Kyle Hatton replaced Rees, and two batters later, surrendered an RBI single to Sahid Valenzuela to give the Titans a 4-3 lead.

In the seventh, Hatton walked Prescott on four pitches. Cope followed with a blast over the wall in left field.

“It starts with the four-pitch, leadoff walk,” said Trapasso, noting the Titans’ leadoff hitter reached base in five innings. “The one ball they really hit hard all night was the home run. It was a hanging changeup. That’s going to happen. You can’t hang a changeup in this ballpark. It’s going to get hit out. That, at least, is baseball. They’re earning that. The issue was the four-pitch walk before the home run. That’s what just kills you. That was the story of the night.”

Johnny Weeks had three hits, and Adam Fogel ended a zip-for-23 slump with a two-run homer off the pole in left to put the ’Bows ahead 3-2 in the fifth. Trapasso had hoped that would be enough against CSUF’s Colton Eastman, a projected early selection in this year’s major league draft.

“Could we have scored more?” Trapasso said. “I don’t know. But we scored three, and that’s almost what you go in hoping for when you face Cal State Fullerton on Friday night. If you score three, then you win 3-2. And we had everything lined up to win 3-2.

The ’Bows had the potential tying run at the plate in the final two innings. But Kekai Rios and Ethan Lopez struck out to end the eighth, and Weeks fanned for the game’s final out.

The teams meet today at 3 p.m.