HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i baseball team dropped their conference home opener against UC Irvine 6-5 on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.
 
The Rainbow Warriors (7-13, 1-3) dropped a close one that came down to their final at-bats. UCI found insurance late in the wet conditions to remain unbeaten in the conference.
 
UCI got on the board first in the top of the third when a single and a throwing error brought across two runs.
 
The 'Bows answered back in the bottom of the fourth when a double steal put two runners in scoring position. With graduate center fielder Cole Cabrera at the plate, he squared one up down, sending a screamer down the left-field line for a double, scoring two.
 
The UH pitching staff got into trouble in the top of the fifth as they loaded the bases for the Anteaters, who took advantage with a double in the gap that cleared the bases and scored three runs to take a 5-2 lead.
 
Freshman designated hitter Jordan Donahue reached on an error to kick off the bottom half of the inning as the next two batters reached to juice the bases. With junior catcher Dallas Duarte at the dish, he grounded out to bring home a run. Junior first baseman Jacob Igawa followed suit with another groundout RBI bringing UH within one.
 
After a walk and hit batter to start the bottom of the sixth, Donahue gave his at-bat in sacrifice to move the runners over. With small ball warnings in effect sophomore, Aaron Ujimori dropped down a textbook safety squeeze, tying the game at 5-5.
 
The 'Eaters struck again in the top of the eighth with a double in the gap scoring one. UH got out of the inning on a failed squeeze play, resulting in an out, followed by a strikeout.
 
Hawai'i threatened in the ninth with a leadoff walk from Duarte followed up by a single but left runners stranded in a 6-5 loss.
 
In his return to the Friday night starting spot, junior pitcher Cade Halemanu went four innings, allowed three runs, and struck out three in the loss. On the offensive side of the ball, Cabrera led the way with two RBIs. 
 
The 'Bows will be back in action with the second of the three-game series on Saturday, with the first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. Graduate pitcher Andy Archer will be taking the mound for his sixth start.