This time, the Hawaii baseball team could not construct a comeback from the rubble of a poor start.

For the third game in a row, a UH starting pitcher could not get past the third inning. And on Sunday, a 7-0 deficit — five of the runs were unearned against Jake Hymel — concluded with 28th-ranked UC Santa Barbara’s 9-1 victory at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Gauchos won three in this four-game series to improve to 18-8 overall and 9-3 in the Big West. The Rainbow Warriors fell to 12-10 and 4-8.

“It’s the third game in a row we put ourselves in a hole, and this one, obviously, was more self-inflicted by throwing the ball all over the place (and) giving them, whatever it was, unearned runs in the first two innings,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said.

In Saturday’s doubleheader, the Gauchos broke out to 5-0 and 4-0 leads, respectively. In the series finale, the theme was repeated when Jordan Sprinkle reached on second baseman Aaron Ujimori’s error, then stole second and third, and came home on Broc Mortensen’s sacrifice fly.

Third baseman Matt Campos and first baseman Alex Baeza each had errant throws in the Gauchos’ six-run second. The Gauchos’ five hits that inning were all grounders, sabotaging Hymel’s first UH start.

“I thought Jake pitched better than his numbers reflected,” Trapasso said. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding, and gave up a couple big hits to bring in runs. All the base hits were ground balls that found their way in. You tip your cap again to Santa Barbara for getting two-out hits. We’ve got to be better than that.”

Adding injury to insult, Baeza suffered an apparent injury to his right (non-throwing) shoulder while diving to first on a pickoff attempt in the fifth inning. The hope is Baeza will be able to undergo an MRI today. “It’s too early to tell,” Trapasso said 20 minutes after the game. “It doesn’t look great, but we’ll see.”

The ’Bows were without ailing catcher Dallas Duarte and third baseman Dustin Demeter this series.

The ’Bows’ only run was created when Tyler Murray, who singled and went to third on Campos’ base hit, was ordered to go home on a balk.

The weekend’s bright spot for UH was the bullpen. The ’Bows’ relievers combined to allowed four runs in 212⁄3 innings. On Sunday, Li‘i Pontes pitched five innings, relinquishing two runs and five hits while striking out five. Cameron Hagan retired the five batters he faced, striking out two. Hagan threw strikes on 12 of 14 pitches.

“It was weird,” Trapasso said. “We had three poor starts, but I thought the bullpen had a great weekend. That was good. Some guys who were struggling pitched well.”

Trapasso said Pontes has moved into contention for a starting spot in the upcoming road series against UC Riverside. Trapasso said Brandon Ross, who made his 2021 debut on Saturday after recovering from an ailment, still needs to build his pitching endurance to claim a starter’s spot. Trapasso said Buddie Pindel, for now, is better suited for a once- or twice-around the lineup role. “I think Pontes definitely will be in the run,” Trapasso said. “I have to take a look at it. There’s no question Pontes has a chance.”

Three of UH’s first four Division I opponents have been nationally ranked. “It wore us down, which was disappointing,” Trapasso said. “We’re better than that. After Arizona State, Long Beach, Irvine and Santa Barbara, we’re going to have the next couple weekends where we’re not going to play a ranked opponent. But if we play like we did today, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’ll get beat. We’ve got to clean it up and go out there and play like we’re capable of.”