Eric Ramirez and Alex Fitchett provided the powerball numbers in the University of Hawaii’s 7-4 baseball victory over UC Riverside on Saturday at Riverside Sports Complex.

Ramirez hit a three-run homer in a four-run first and Fitchett’s two-run blast broke a 4-all tie in the seventh. The Rainbow Warriors won this Big West series 2-1 and split this six-game road trip.

“We found a way to get it done,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said in postgame phone call, “and we were 3-3 on the road. It could be better, but it could be a lot worse.”

Trapasso said clean-up hitter Josh Rojas set the early tone against Riverside ace Alex Fagalde. With two outs in the first, Rojas doubled home Dustin Demeter from first.

“Like a lot of good pitchers, if you’re going to get to him, you’ve got to get to him early,” Trapasso said. “I thought Rojas got us on the board with a great swing, and that got us started. Just to get one in the first, you’re feeling good about it, that you’re off and running with Rojas’ double.”

After Adam Fogel walked, Ramirez pulled a wind-aided, three-run homer to right. “The moment he hit it, everybody was ready to to run back on the field,” Trapasso mused. “But the wind kept blowing and blowing and it just barely cleared the fence.”

The Highlanders chopped back with two big hacks from Connor Cannon. Cannon hit a bases-empty homer in a two-run fourth, then tied it with a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth.

“When Cannon hit that second one, it was like the wind went out of our sails,” Trapasso said. “It was pretty frustrating with our guys. We had some bad body language out there on the field, like we had just lost the game. It was only the sixth inning and it was tied. ‘I guess we assume we’re not going to score anymore, fellas?’”

After Ramirez walked to open the seventh, Riverside coach Troy Percival walked to the mound. After a discussion, Percival opted not to pull Fagalde. Four pitches later, Fitchett homered off his former Oak Ridge High teammate.

Trapasso praised Neil Uskali, who pitched six innings to improve to 5-2. “I thought Neil pitched as gutsy a performance as I’ve seen,” Trapasso said.

Home-plate umpire Mike Lusky had a tight but consistent strike zone in which he was inflexible on the low pitches, Trapasso said.

“It was a very good umpire, but he had an extremely tight zone for both teams,” Trapasso said. “He would not call anything down in the zone. And (the Highlanders) were laying off anything (Uskali was) throwing down if he wasn’t calling it.’

But Uskali focused on the bottom line. “Neil never gave in,” Trapasso said. “He continued to pound down in the zone. He went deep in some counts and he had a couple walks because of it, but he didn’t give in to leaving the ball up in the zone. It was really a good performance for him.”

Matt Richardson replaced Uskali at the start of the UCR seventh. Richardson induced two outs but placed runners at the corners when he exited. Dylan Thomas struck out Cody Sporrer on three pitches to end the threat. Thomas did not allow a run in the eighth or ninth for his fourth save.

The ’Bows return to Honolulu today. Trapasso will remain on the West Coast through Tuesday to recruit.