Friday night in Orange County, Calif., the “Q” was the answer in the Hawaii baseball team’s 7-2 victory over UC Irvine at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.

Right fielder Jared Quandt benefited from his new batting spot to score three runs and drive in another three as the Rainbow Warriors won the opener of a three-game series. Quandt moved up to second in the order behind leadoff hitter DallasJ Duarte and ahead of sluggers Matt Wong, Kyson Donahue and Jacob Igawa.

“He really got hot at the right time,” UH coach Rich Hill said of Quandt, who was 2-for-4 and also was hit by a pitch. “We put him in the two hole today to try to get more guys in front of Wong, Kyson and Igawa. That really paid off.”

Quandt’s fourth home run of the season — a two-run blast — gave the ’Bows a 2-1 lead in the third.

In the three-run seventh, Quandt added a run-scoring triple, then came home on Wong’s RBI grounder.

Quandt also was on board when Igawa belted a two-run double in the ninth.

Harry Gustin, Alex Giroux and Harrison Bodendorf collaborated to space seven hits and boost the ’Bows to 22-16 overall and 11-8 in the Big West.

Gustin allowed two runs in the first five innings before issuing a walk to start the sixth. Giroux relinquished a one-out single to Will Bermudez, and both runners advanced on Augie Gutierrez’s sacrifice. Caden Kendle hit a drive that left fielder Ben Zeigler-Namoa sprawled to catch for the third out.

With the heart of the Anteaters’ lineup — Thomas McCaffrey, Anthony Martinez and Dub Gleeb — due to bat in the seventh, Hill summoned left-handed Bodendorf. In two appearances against UC Riverside last weekend, Bodendorf allowed a combined seven runs in 2 2⁄3 innings. But Hill figured Bodendorf was fresh after being held out of Wednesday’s nonconference game against Pepperdine.

Bodendorf retired the first seven Anteaters he faced, four on strikeouts. He escaped a two-on, two-out drama in the ninth when he whiffed Martinez on a 3-2 pitch. Martinez entered batting .401 with a 1.5-to-1 ratio of walks/HBPs to strikeouts. As a De La Salle High senior last year, Martinez struck out twice.

“Martinez is hard to strike out,” Hill said. “To end the game with a strikeout there is pretty impressive.”

Hill said he never considered pulling Bodendorf.

“He usually gets stronger as the game goes on,” Hill said. “That’s why we brought him in in the seventh. In the seventh inning, they had their best hitters in, two through four. I wanted our best guy in, and I knew (Bodendorf) gets better. … That was a pretty impressive bounce-back outing.”

Hill added: “In the grand scheme of things, I don’t know how big (the outcome) is. We don’t look at this thing until the smoke clears at the end of the year. To win on a Friday night at UC Irvine, that team that just won six straight and had a 30 RPI, it’s a great win.”

The three-game series continues with today’s 10 a.m. start. UH’s Randy Abshier and UCI’s Michael Stanford are the scheduled starting pitchers.

Hill indicated Giroux and Bodendorf might be considerations to come back and start in Sunday’s series finale.