Unfortunately for the Hawaii baseball team, its surplus of runs from Friday night were non-transferable to the rest of its weekend road series against UC Riverside.

The Rainbow Warriors lost on a walk-off in the 13^th inning on Saturday, 4-3, and fell short to the Highlanders in the rubber match Sunday, 7-4, undoing a roaring 17-5 start to the series for UH.

It was the first series loss of the year and first Big West series loss in the last seven conference sets for UH (11-4, 1-2 BWC) dating to last season.

UCR (10-6, 2-1), which went 6-24 in league play last year and was picked to finish last this year, won its first Big West series of the season for the first time since 2018. UCR lost its first 11 Big West games last year.

The ‘Bows have little time to worry about it as they host Division II neighbor Chaminade on Tuesday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

No. 16 UC Santa Barbara (13-2, 3-0), the preseason Big West favorite, comes to town for a challenging series this weekend. The Gauchos swept CSUN in three close games.

Catcher David Whittle drove in six runs on a bases-clearing double in the sixth and a three-run shot to left off of Isaiah Magdaleno in the seventh.

UH starter Liam O’Brien kept alive his streak of no earned runs to start the year at 21 1/3 innings as he went four frames with three hits and five walks allowed, striking out six. He has a scoreless innings streak of 11 spanning his last two starts.

Matthew Flores (2-0) picked up the win for the Highlanders, going six innings with five hits, no walks and one run allowed. Itsuki Takemoto knocked a pinch-hit RBI single in the fifth to get the ‘Bows on the board first.

But Cory Ronan (1-1), who took the loss, loaded the bases in the sixth and absorbed all three runs when he was lifted and Danny Veloz gave up the double to Whittle. UH’s top two relievers, Magdaleno and Freddy Gonzalez, were both charged with two earned runs.

UCR’s leadoff man, center fielder Robert Pitts, was a killer all series as he went 10-for-16 for the series, including the walk-off winner in the 13^th on Saturday and a solo homer in the eighth inning Sunday. He has an on-base streak of 16 games.

Ben Zeigler-Namoa led UH at the plate with a 3-for-5 day and scored on a wild pitch in the eighth. Pinch hitter Jack Salmon picked up his first extra-base hit of the year with an RBI double in the ninth, scoring Shunsuke Sakaino.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.