HONOLULU – The Hawai'i baseball team took an early lead but made some costly mistakes in a big fifth inning for Cal Poly in a 9-5 loss before a large Saturday night crowd at Les Murakami Stadium.
 
The Rainbow Warriors broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the fourth. After back-to-back walks and a wild pitch to start the inning, Kyson Donahue put the 'Bows on the board with an RBI single to make it 1-0. Austin Machado came around to score the second run on a double play.
 
Cal Poly would come right back with five runs on two UH errors in the top of the fifth to take the lead. After a leadoff homer cut UH's lead to 2-1, the Mustangs scored four more runs after a pair of Hawai'i errors on potential inning-ending double play balls extended the frame, making it 5-2 Cal Poly.
 
The Mustangs added two more in the seventh with the help of a misjudged fly ball followed by an RBI triple and sacrifice fly, making it 7-2.
 
UH wouldn't go away quietly, plating three runs in the eighth to cut it to 7-5. After a couple of Cal Poly errors helped put runners on the corners with no outs, Jake Tsukada delivered an RBI double to trim the deficit to four. Machado followed one batter later with a two run single to pull the 'Bows within two. UH had an opportunity to add more but a double play and strikeout ended the frame.
 
Machado continued his solid weekend, turning in a three-hit game for the second straight game after going 3-for-3. On the weekend, Machado is 6-for-7 with a walk and three RBIs. Elijah Ickes turned in a multi-hit game a day after recording a multi-RBI game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.
 
Jordan Donahue had his 18-game hitting streak snapped after going 0-for-5. Donahue's 18-game stretch is the fourth-longest in program history and was the longest since Neal Honma hit safely in 19 straight spanning the end of the 1997 season and the start of 1998 season.
 
The 'Bows will look for the series win in Sunday's series finale beginning at 1:05 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.