After 20 seasons, the University of Hawaii and head baseball coach Mike Trapasso will be parting ways.

Two days after the Rainbow Warriors’ disappointing conclusion to the regular season, Trapasso was told he would not receive a new contract for a 21st season. His one-year contract expires on Aug. 31. Trapasso was 536-531, with two appearances in the NCAA regionals.

UH athletic director David Matlin notified the players during a Zoom session on Tuesday morning.

“He’s a great guy,” freshman pitcher Austin Teixeira said. “He was always able to make everyone laugh when we needed it. He’s a great coach. He always had the right things to say. He was always 100% behind his players no matter what. … Everyone’s going to miss him.”

Shortstop Kole Kaler said: “He was a great guy to me. I definitely feel for him, and hope for the best for his future.”

The ’Bows had a hopeful start in the first four weeks, going 11-3 and being ranked 30th nationally. A month ago, they were at 15-13 in the Big West after winning seven of eight heading into a bye weekend. But after the break, they lost 11 of their final 12 to finish 24-26 overall and 16-24 in the Big West.

Of the skid to the finish line, Trapasso said on Sunday, “If I knew the answer to that, we’d be working on it. We just didn’t play well. There’s no question we ran out of gas. We played some hot teams that played better than us. I’m not going to try to put the whole season into one sentence. The last three weeks were a struggle for us. We were playing at a high level before that and, again, we ran out of gas, and just didn’t play well enough.”

There were several obstacles this academic year. Because of the pandemic, fall training was amended to small-group workouts. An ambitious preconference schedule was altered to a road series against Arizona State and two series against local Division II teams. The bye was created because Utah of the Pac-12 had to withdraw its commitment. While most of the Big West teams never played outside California, with the exception of five series in Hawaii, the ’Bows made six trips to the mainland. In each, they followed strict protocols of mandatory testing and eating their meals in hotel rooms.

There also were several injuries. Catcher Dallas Duarte, infielder Kenji Suzuki, outfielder/first baseman Safea Villaruz-Mauai, and pitcher Brandon Ross suffered season-ending injuries. Other key players, such as third baseman Dustin Demeter, infielder Matt Campos and Teixeira, missed significant time because of injuries.

The result was Hawaii remaining without a winning season in nine years of Big West membership.

Don Robbs, who announced UH baseball games for 40 years, acknowledged Trapasso had a challenge following Les Murakami, the only other head coach in the program’s history (not including Carl Furutani’s 2001 stint as acting coach in which he went 29-27). Murakami led the ’Bows to the 1980 College World Series. UH’s stadium is named after Murakami.

“It would be tough to replace Les,” Robbs said. “And timing is everything. College baseball has gone through a lot of significant adjustments beginning back to the end of Coach Les and through Trap’s tenure. Fewer games and all kinds of restrictions.”

Robbs was on the selection committee that approved Trapasso as the successor to Murakami, who retired after the 2000 season because of medical issues caused by a stroke.

“The committee went to Los Angeles to meet him there,” Robbs said of Trapasso, who was coaching at Georgia Tech at the time. “He dazzled us. He had a very impressive resume. And he also was very articulate and candid and to the point. We said, ‘Jeez, this is our man.’”

A UH official noted that Trapasso never had any NCAA-compliance issues. The past 10 years, all but one of his juniors or seniors earned a degree. The lone player still is actively pursuing a degree.

“He did one thing I don’t think anybody else can do,” Murakami said. “He had a 100% graduation rate. When you come down to it, why do you go to college? To graduate, right? For him to graduate everybody is unbelievable.”

Robbs said: “When you put down job descriptions (for a coach), one of those definitions is student-athletes must truly be student-athletes. They certainly were under Mike Trapasso.”

Pal Eldredge, who provides analysis for Spectrum Sports’ baseball telecasts, said Trapasso embraced Hawaii. “His wife works here,” Eldredge said. “His kids grew up here. In a way, it’s like, ‘wow.’ He’s a good coach. He’s a good guy. He’ll find a place to land. He’ll find a pitching job somewhere. He knows pitching. That’s his strength.”