The University of Hawaii baseball team made a statement — in duplicate — in Thursday’s 12-1 rout of Hawaii Pacific at Les Murakami Stadium.

Aaron Davenport reaffirmed his ace status with a mesmerizing five-hitter over seven innings. Davenport worked fast (a pitch every sub-11 seconds) and furiously (13 strikeouts). He fanned 10 in the first five innings. Of his 97 pitches, 68 were for strikes.

Center fielder Adam Fogel declared his return to full health and form, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs. Fogel’s two-run blast in the opening inning was his first homer since Feb. 16, 2019.

The dual performances helped the Rainbow Warriors claim the first of this four-game series. First pitch tonight will be at 6:35.

After pitching well against Arizona State in last week’s season opener, Davenport was even better in his second outing. Davenport mixed a 92-mph fastball, 3,000-spin-rate curveball, and dancing changeup. Shortstop Nicholas Jio turned away to avoid a curveball that broke over the plate for a third strike.

“He had good stuff, and he threw three pitches for strikes, and he continued to mix throughout the whole time,” head coach Mike Trapasso said of the junior right-hander. “He was very business-like in his approach, as he usually is. I thought he was outstanding.”

Davenport’s blemish was Braxton Wehrle’s towering solo homer to right in the sixth inning.

That was the same spot where Fogel planted his home run in the first inning. It has been a long path for Fogel, whose 2019 season was abbreviated to 10 games after he suffered an injury to his right shoulder on a slide to the plate. He did not hit a home run in UH’s pandemic-shortened season in 2020.

On Thursday, Fogel moved from the middle of the order to No. 2, bracketed by contact hitters Scotty Scott and Kole Kaler. Fogel appeared to enter in attack mode. After Scott ripped a lead-off double, Fogel clobbered an opposite-field drive over the wall in right to open the scoring.

“Putting him in the two hole I thought was a neat thing for him, and could help us,” Trapasso said. “I said to coach (Carl Fraticelli), ‘I like him in the two hole.’ Of course, he hit a home run, and I said, ‘I really like him in the two hole. I have a strong suspicion he’ll be in the two hole (on Friday).”

In the third, Fogel doubled off wall in left-center, with the ball sounding a thump in the stadium without fans.

Fogel had a run-scoring single in the ’Bows’ six-run fourth.

Fogel’s infield single to short loaded the bases in sixth. Aaron Ujimori and Scott came home on Alex Baeza’s single to right and, a batter later, Fogel scored on an error. The Sharks committed three errors, including two by starting pitcher Shane Adams.

Trapasso praised Fogel as “the kind of guy who can get hot and carry a team. That’s great to see. He deserves it.”

Ujimori, Scott and Baeza each contributed two hits to the ’Bows’ 14-hit attack.

Dallas Duarte hit a base-clearing double down the left-field line in the fourth.

Trevor Ichimura, a 2019 Iolani School graduate, pitched the final two innings for the ’Bows. It was his first UH appearance since transferring from Washington State in August 2020. Ichimura allowed an eighth-inning single, but the baserunner was eliminated on an inning-ending double play.

Despite the outcome, it was a gritty debut for the Sharks. Because of the pandemic, they only practiced five players at a time. “I thought they had very competitive at-bats, and did not chase (pitches) out of the zone,” Trapasso said. “I was impressed with them and how they competed.”