The road couldn’t be blamed for this one.

A return to Les Murakami Stadium was of no avail for the Hawaii baseball team, which fell 5-3 in its series opener with UC Davis on Thursday.

The Rainbows (14-12) had a few costly defensive lapses and little timely hitting, resulting in their fifth straight loss before the crowd of 1,208. A two-run homer by Trevor Podratz in the fourth inning wasn’t enough to pull UH back from a 3-0 first-inning deficit.

"We came out flat, and … it’s tough to come out of a hole in the first inning, but we’ve got to be stronger than that," said junior shortstop Pi’ikea Kitamura, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI single in the eighth. "And that’s really what it comes down to. We’ve got to trust ourselves, trust our ability, and we’ll be fine."

This Big West Conference preview series doubles as UH’s last nonconference set before the start of its final season of Western Athletic Conference play. UH will try to rebound today at 6:35 p.m. behind lefty Jarrett Arakawa (2-2, 1.59 ERA). He will likely go against left-hander Anthony Kupbens (2-2, 2.57).

The Aggies (11-10) got to losing UH starter Matt Sisto (4-3) early, taking a 4-0 lead through three innings. However, Sisto settled down and bought the ‘Bows time enough to make a comeback attempt, going eight innings.

"That’s a senior, that’s poise and that’s keeping us in the game. We just couldn’t overcome that first inning," UH coach Mike Trapasso said.

The meaningful hits just wouldn’t come, save for Podratz’s blast in the fourth and Kitamura’s late-inning RBI that scored Breland Almadova.

That was largely due to UCD’s senior left-hander Dayne Quist, who kept UH off balance to improve to 4-0. He combined with two relievers for a five-hitter. Quist struck out nine and walked one, and his ERA now stands at 1.99.

"Three runs on five hits isn’t what you’re looking for, but in a Game 1 against a guy of that caliber, if you scratch around three runs, you’re going to have to make that work," Trapasso said. "The disappointing thing was the freebies, and that was really the story of the game."

UH turned three double plays, but also committed three errors. Other mistakes hurt, too.

Sisto hit two of the first five batters he faced, allowing three straight singles in between for a 3-0 Aggies lead.

The Aggies tacked on a run in the third when Nick Lynch smacked a one-out triple to right, past the glove of a diving Zack Swasey. Scott Kaluch followed with a sacrifice fly to left field, completed when Kaeo Aliviado’s on-target throw home was dropped by catcher Cody Clark.

Podratz sparked his team with an opposite-field, two-run homer to right field in the fourth to make it 4-2. But Quist limited the damage from there.

"Right away we got shot right back down," Podratz said. "All we needed was something else to spark us up, but we just weren’t able to pull together on our own and spark up."

It was Podratz’s team-best second shot of the season. He tied Collin Bennett for the team RBIs lead at 13.

The Aggies went back to capitalizing on UH mistakes. Runners advanced to second and third on a Sisto wild pitch, and the Aggies went up 5-2 on the next batter when third baseman Bennett’s routine throw to first forced Max Duval off the bag.

Almadova walked to lead off the eighth, and UH advanced him on pair of groundouts followed by Kitamura’s RBI single to right to make it 5-3. The rally ended there, though, as Podratz struck out swinging. UH went down in order in the ninth.

"(Quist) was able to pull apart the plate," Podratz said. "He was throwing pitches on all counts. Kind of didn’t know what was coming. It was a lot of defensive hitting, in my opinion."

Second baseman Tino Lipson led UCD offensively with three of the Aggies’ 10 hits.

UC DAVIS 5, HAWAII 3

UC DAVIS (11-10) 301 010 000 – 5 10 1 HAWAII (14-12) 000 200 010 — 3 5 3 E–Lipson, Bennett 2, Duval. DP–Hawaii 3. LOB–UC Davis 7, Hawaii 6. 3B–Lynch. HR–Podratz. HBP–Barker, Lynch, Quist. SF–Kalush.

WP–Quist, Sisto. HBP–by Sisto (Barker), by Sisto (Lynch), by Quist (Swasey). Umpires–(Plate): Kim Vessey. (First): Kendall Snyder. (Third): Shawn Rakos. T–2:24. A–1,208.