A Big West championship is out of the grasp of the Hawaii baseball team. A winning Big West record? Harrison Bodendorf could help with that.

The sophomore left-hander struck out a career-best 10 batters in four innings of relief as the Rainbow Warriors beat Long Beach State 7-2 to even the three-game road series at Blair Field in Long Beach, California, on Saturday.

UH (33-16) improved to 16-10 in the Big West with four games remaining, guaranteeing a winning conference record for the third straight year of Rich Hill’s three-year tenure. Prior to the arrival of the ex-San Diego coach, UH had never posted a winning record in nine years of Big West play.

The ‘Bows had their 11-game winning streak snapped on Friday. UC Santa Barbara (22-4 BWC) has all but sewn up the league title, and UC Irvine is solidly in second at 19-7. However, UH is still in contention for a top-three finish with Cal Poly a game ahead at 17-9.

Randy Abshier got the start and went five innings, extending his streak of innings without an earned run to 17 1/3, although he was charged with an unearned run in the third. Itsuki Takemoto (3-1) got the win with an inning of middle relief.

But Bodendorf was stellar, striking out 10 of the 17 Dirtbags he faced to pick up his second save of the season. His previous high in strikeouts was eight.

Jake Tsukada went 3-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch and catcher Austin Machado was 3-for-5. Dallas Duarte, who has appeared more frequently at designated hitter in the final handful of games of his college career, went 2-for-5.

UH and LBSU (24-26-1, 9-17) conclude the series at 10 a.m. Hawaii time Sunday.

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