The Hawaii baseball team got out to a huge lead Saturday against CSU Bakersfield before things got interesting.

In the end, the Rainbow Warriors held off the Roadrunners 11-7 in Bakersfield, Calif.

Hawaii led 9-0 after 4 1/2 innings only to have CSU Bakersfield get the potential go-ahead run at the plate in the seventh.

The Rainbow Warriors (12-6, 2-0 Big West) have won seven of their last eight.

Danny Veloz (2-0) allowed one hit over 1 1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts for the victory. Harrison Bodendorf recorded the final seven outs for his first save of the season. The junior left-hander had started four games among his previous five appearances.

Hawaii lead-off batter Jordan Donahue and No. 9 hitter Elijah Ickes each had three hits. Austin Machado homered and scored three times, and Stone Miyao and DallasJ Duarte each drove in two runs.

CSU Bakersfield’s Jacob Gutierrez faced the minimum through three innings.

Hawaii’s Jordan Donahue led off the game with a double and was erased when Jake Tsukada lined into a double play to the right fielder.

The Rainbow Warriors got to Gutierrez the second time through the order.

Hawaii loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth on Jordan Donahue’s double, Tsukada’s single and a hit by pitch to Machado.

Matthew Miura’s ground ball was booted by the third baseman, which allowed Jordan Donahue to score the first run of the game.

Ben Zeigler-Namoa hit a bloop single to center, which scored Tsukada, and Machado scored on a passed ball.

The first out of the inning was recorded on Miyao’s sacrifice fly to center, which made it 4-0.

Duarte executed a successful squeeze bunt down the first-base line off new Roadrunner pitcher Gary Grosjean, which scored Zeigler-Namoa. Duarte was credited with a single on the play.

Hawaii went up 6-0 when Ickes singled and Kyson Donahue scored when the right fielder bobbled the ball.

The Rainbow Warriors took a 9-0 lead in the fifth on Kyson Donahue’s fielder’s choice groundout, and run-scoring singles by Duarte and Ickes.

The Roadrunners (3-16, 0-2) cut the deficit to 9-6 in the bottom half of the inning on RBI singles by Noah Alvarez, Matt Kurata and Nick Salas, Cody Hendriks’ run-scoring double and Zavien Watson’s two-run double.

Hawaii hadn’t allowed a run in its previous 15 2/3 innings.

Randy Abshier, the reigning Big West Pitcher of the Week, Zacary Tenn and Veloz all recorded one out for Hawaii in the fifth.

The Rainbow Warriors extended their lead to 10-6 in the sixth on Miyao’s RBI single, which scored Machado.

In the seventh, CSU Bakersfield got within 10-7 when Hendriks scored on a two-out wild pitch by Isaiah Magdaleno. A walk reloaded the bases, and Bodendorf entered for UH.

Bodendorf fell behind 3-0 to Roadrunners’ lead-off batter Jonah Shields, but battled back to strike him out swinging.

Machado’s solo homer to right in the eighth put the Rainbow Warriors ahead 11-7.