Sun’s up, baseballs out.

The UC Santa Barbara baseball team took advantage of the remaining daylight in Friday’s 8-4 victory over Hawaii on the UCSB campus.

There is a theory that ball travels better during the day at UC Santa Barbara while the post-sunset marine layer creates more resistance. In a game that started in the late afternoon, the Gauchos hit three home runs to win the opener of a three-game Big West series.

The Gauchos entered as the league’s home run leader with 26. They added to that total when Nick Johnson hit a two-run shot in a five-run third, Broc Mortensen smacked his seventh of the season in the fourth, and Zander Darby belted a solo homer in the sixth.

“They’re a good-hitting team in the daytime,” UH head coach Rich Hill said. “The ball can really jump. They’ve got really good home run numbers. At nightfall, it’s a different park. But you’ve got to give them credit. Those balls probably would have been gone at 8 o’clock at night or noon.”

Hill and catcher DallasJ Duarte watched a live stream of the game from the hotel where the Rainbow Warriors are staying during the first leg of this six-day road trip. Both were suspended for Friday’s game after being ejected on Sunday against UC Irvine. Hill’s ejection was his second in two weeks.

“It was a decision made by the Big West Conference,” Hill said. “There’s a bylaw in there about ejections. It’s considered unsportsmanlike conduct. I’ve had two of ’em. They felt this was appropriate measures. … We appealed. Our administration has been phenomenal. They’ve been extremely supportive. They want to use this as an educational and teachable moment, as do I.”

Hill and Duarte will join the ’Bows for today’s game, which begins at noon Hawaii time. UH’s Andy Archer and UCSB’s Mike Gutierrez will be the starting pitchers.

UH shortstop Kyson Donahue’s second home run in as many games staked the Bows to a 1-0 lead in the second inning. But that advantage, which was written in chalk, was erased in the Gauchos’ five-run third. The inning started when Mortensen reached on second baseman Stone Miyao’s error on a grounder. That meant every run that happened after Jordan Sprinkler struck out for the second out would be unearned. Vogt’s three-run double to left-center had an exit speed of 102 mph. Johnson followed with his fourth homer of the season.

After Donahue dropped a popup in the fifth inning, Christian Kirtley followed with a two-out, run-scoring double for a 7-1 lead.

Six of the Gauchos’ eight runs were unearned.

“That’s baseball,” Hill said. “We came in leading the Big West Conference in defense, which is awesome. When you give a really good team like Santa Barbara extra outs, you’re just walking a tightrope.”

UCSB starter Corey Lewis allowed three runs while striking out 11 in six innings to improve to 5-0.

Michael Rice, the third UCSB pitcher, entered with the bases loaded and with one out in the seventh. Rice retired all eight batters he faced.

UH starter Cade Halemanu exited after 4 2/3 innings, striking out eight and allowing five hits. One of the seven runs he allowed was earned. Freshmen Harry Gustin and Ben Whipple combined to allow one hit and a run in 31⁄3 innings.

UH fell to 8-15 overall and 2-5 in the Big West. UCSB is 17-6 and 6-1.