The University of Hawaii baseball team is exploring different ways to recruit and train during this pandemic.

At this time during past summers, the UH coaches would be securing replacements for recruits lost to pro baseball and evaluating next year’s prospects at tournaments on the mainland. But with this year’s Major League Baseball draft restricted to five rounds (from 40 rounds in recent years), the Rainbow Warriors did not absorb any hit to the incoming recruiting class.

“We’ve turned our sights on recruiting the 2021 grads for the 2022 season,” head coach Mike Trapasso said. “In normal times, I would spend whatever part of the summer it took to replace the players — maybe the recruits, in particular — we lost in the draft. This year, because of the five-round draft, we didn’t lose recruits or anything like that. Our focus has been mainly on the ’21s (next year’s high school and junior college graduates) and getting started on the ’22s.”

Trapasso said several sources of scouting — mainland tournaments and showcases — have been canceled because of the pandemic.

“We’d be gone most of July and August on the road watching games,” Trapasso said. “Now we do (evaluations) through video and phone calls, and Zoom, and it’s going well. It’s just going differently.”

UH is expected to emphasize pitching for the next recruiting class. Logan Pouelsen, who pitched the opener of UH’s five series last season, is completing his UH eligibility at the end of the 2021 season. Starting pitchers Aaron Davenport and Brandon Ross are highly regarded prospects for the 2021 draft. “The focal point, right now, is on arms,” Trapasso said.

Trapasso also is mapping several practice plans for the small semester. State guidelines currently discourage large gatherings.

“My focus has been on logistics and different practice plans and using different parameters that we have to be working by and different groupings,” Trapasso said. “I’m excited about that. Our fall work is generally done in group work, at least the early part in August and September. We might have to extend it a little more.”

In addition to small-group sessions, Trapasso said, there might be simulated scrimmages.

“It’ll be fun to try these new things out and get some work done with smaller squad sizes,” Trapasso said. “It’ll create more work for the coaches because we’ll have to repeat more things.”

Instead of, say, going over defense with the entire team for an hour, Trapasso said, “you split the team into three groups. Kids are still doing it for an hour, but (the coaches are) doing it for three. Frankly, that’s more fun. We get to stay on the field (longer) and play baseball. The game is fun. Doing it once a day is great. Three times a day is three times better. Absolutely.”