Hawaii’s pitching staff was said to be the biggest question mark entering this season according to coach Rich Hill, and UConn exploited it at Les Murakami Stadium Sunday.

A crowd of 2,052 watched eight Hawaii pitchers combine to walk 16 batters and hit another four in an 18-10 loss to UConn, ending a 10-game winning streak on Sundays for Hawaii in the process.

“When you give up 16 walks, that’s a glaring statistic,” Hill said.

“We’re in the middle of auditions and trying to figure out roles on the pitching staff before we head into Big West conference play. It may take more than a month, but we’ll get it right.”

Harrison Bodendorf (1-1) pitched into the second inning, allowing four runs and walking four batters. Three UH pitchers — Matthew Flores, Kahiau Schenk and Cole Alexander — made their season debuts, with Flores and Schenk each going 11⁄3 innings and Alexander pitching 1⁄3 of the ninth inning.

Hawaii scored 10 runs on 10 hits, with Tai Walton’s 2-for-3 with four RBIs being the major contribution among 16 position players who made a plate appearance for the Rainbow Warriors on Sunday.

“When you put on this uniform — which is very prestigious to even earn the right to wear a uniform — you get an opportunity to play on test day,” Hill said. “I think just about everybody got in there on the roster — certainly on the pitching side of things.”

UConn batted around in the top of the first as Jake Studley ripped a ball down the line for an RBI double and Luke Broadhurst drove in two more runs with a single to take a 3-0 lead.

Hawaii responded in the bottom of the first inning, also batting around and tying the game at 3-all on a wild pitch, an RBI single by Walton and an RBI double by Kyson Donahue.

UConn retook the lead with a four-run second inning, capped by Bryan Padilla’s three-run home run to left-center field. After UConn added a run in the top of the third, Matt Wong hit a leadoff home run in the bottom half of the inning to keep Hawaii’s deficit at four runs.

Ryan Hyde’s two-run single gave UConn a 10-4 lead in the top of the fourth before Walton’s three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth cut UConn’s lead to 10-7.

A six-run seventh inning in which UH pitchers gave up three hits and walked five UConn batters gave the Huskies a nine-run lead. Pinch-hit singles by Sean Rimmer and Jared Quandt in the bottom half of the seventh trimmed UH’s deficit to six runs, but UConn added a run in both the eighth and ninth innings to put the game out of reach.

“(UConn) went up and just put up crooked numbers — it seemed like all day — and we just came back and answered most of the time with tough ABs,” Hill said.

Garrett Coe (1-0) earned the win for UConn despite giving up three runs on one hit and four walks over 2 innings pitched in relief.

The two teams meet tonight at 6:35 to close out the series.

“We’re going to flush this and be ready to go tomorrow,” Hill said.