For the Hawaii baseball team, what should have been the exclamation point to a series turned into an expiration point.

Washington State scored three runs in the eighth inning and three more in the ninth against UH’s surprisingly implosive bullpen for a 6-5 victory at Les Murakami Stadium on Sunday.

The Cougars improved to 3-5 and salvaged a split of the four-game series. The Rainbow Warriors fell to 7-3.

“It’s a bad loss,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said.

The outcome spoiled left-hander Brandon Ross’ best start of the season. Ross threw seven shutout innings, but exited with a 4-0 lead at the start of the eighth inning. Trapasso said Ross exceeded the target of 80 pitches. Ross’ tally was at 97 pitches.

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Trapasso then turned the game to his bullpen, which entered with a collective 1.42 earned-run average. But three relievers allowed seven hits and six runs in two innings. A fielder’s choice allowed Preston Clifford to race home from third to break a 5-all tie.

“You’ve got to make pitches for nine innings, and we didn’t,” said Trapasso, who doubles as the ’Bows’ pitching coach. “We have to make better pitches. We were ahead in counts, and didn’t execute the pitches. And we threw too many elevated pitches. The bullpen lost it. They won it (Saturday) night, they lost it today.”

Trapasso said there was no debate about pulling Ross.

“Our goal was 80 (pitches), and he got to 97,” Trapasso said. “He deserved a better fate. We need to pitch better out of the bullpen.”

Ross agreed with the decision, saying: “As a starting pitcher, you want to go from start to finish. I wanted to go that nine innings. … Coach Trap made the right call. I was a little tired. My competitive nature wanted to (keep pitching). We had guys in the ’pen. We’ve got dudes on the mound, top to bottom.”

The ’Bows appeared to have had enough cushion. Tyler Best, who replaced ailing Scotty Scott at the top of the order and in right field, had two hits, drove in a run and scored another. Ryder Kuhns, who had preceded Tua Tagovailoa as Saint Louis School’s starting quarterback, made his starting debut as UH’s designated hitter and also scored a run and socked a sacrifice fly.

After the Cougars closed to 4-3 in the eighth, Alex Baeza beat out a potential double play for a fielder’s choice as Kole Kaler raced home in the bottom of the inning.

But Vince Reilly, UH’s most successful back-end pitcher this season, could not hold the 5-3 lead. After WSU loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, Reilly threw an 0-2 pitch that appeared to catch the outside segment of the plate. But umpire Jake Uhlenhopp thought otherwise, and Jack Smith singled to right to bring home pinch-runner Gianni Tomasi.

Kyle Manzardo’s sacrifice fly tied it 5. After Calvin Turchin replaced Reilly, Justin Van De Brake hit a grounder to second baseman Stone Miyao. But Miyao’s throw was too late to shortstop Kaler as Clifford scored the decisive run.

“I’m not going to blame it on one or two pitches,” UH catcher Tyler Murray said of the pitch that was not a third strike. “We have to be better as a team. We’re up, 4-0. That’s not enough. We have to capitalize on more opportunities and score more runs.”

Trapasso expressed disappointment for Ross, who overcame early struggles. “He started smelling it in the middle innings,” Trapasso said. “He got more aggressive and started getting ahead in the count.”

Ross credited Murray for his improved pitching. A week earlier, Ross had control issues despite pitching three scoreless innings. Ross requested video of the center field’s angle of his pitching. Over dinner, Ross and Murray studied the video cut-ups. Murray suggested Ross try a more linear delivery.

“It was more staying on line to the plate than rotating off,” Ross said.

Ross allowed two hits and struck out five in seven innings.

“It doesn’t matter if you can’t pitch for nine innings as a staff,” Trapasso said, “and we didn’t do that today.”