The Hawaii baseball team pounded out a 14-5 rout of Cal State Bakersfield at Hardt Field on the CSUB campus.

The Rainbow Warriors produced 14 of their season0-high 17 hits in the fifth and seventh innings.

The ’Bows improved to 20-15 overall and 10-11 in the Big West to move ahead of UC Irvine and into sixth place. The top five teams qualify for the Big West Tournament and a chance to earn the accompanying berth in the NCAA Regionals.

After 14 relief appearances, John Alkire II made his first UH start. He exited leading 5-0 with one out in the fifth, having gone through the CSUB order twice. Grant Garman surrendered a sacrifice fly and allowed a second CSUB runner when Elgin Bennett was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Tsubasa Tomii, the third of five UH pitchers, went 3 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the victory.

The ’Bows broke away with five runs in the fifth and another nine in the seventh. Ben Zeigler-Namoa and Tate Shimao each drove in four runs and Josh Martin, who transferred from Santa Rosa College in August, smacked a three-run homer, his first as a ’Bow.

“We’ve had a little bit of a struggle scoring runs,” UH coach Rich Hill said. “That was a great feeling. Just like the old days. It feels great, especially the character of this group. After getting gut-punched on Friday night (in a 2-0 loss), as a bad a loss as you can experience, to respond like this, very proud of the group.”

UH continues the seven-game road trip with a Tuesday’s meeting against No. 1-ranked UCLA.