University of Hawaii baseball coach Rich Hill lines up challenging schedule for Rainbows

JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Cade Halemanu earned the win in Hawaii’s 1-0 victory over Long Beach State in a Big West game on March 20 at Les Murakami Stadium. Halemanu struck out four and held the Dirtbags to five hits on March 20.

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For Rich Hill’s inaugural season as Hawaii’s head baseball coach, the Rainbow Warriors will take the plunge with a challenging 2022 nonconference schedule that includes playing host to traditional power Vanderbilt.

The ’Bows will open the season against Washington State on Feb. 18 at Les Murakami Stadium.

The following weekend, they will be one of 12 teams, including Arizona, participating in the Tony Gwynn Classic in San Diego.

The ’Bows then return home for series against Rutgers and Vanderbilt, which last month fell a game short of repeating as College World Series champion.

Hill, who was hired in June, said playing a tough schedule is part of the objective of packing Les Murakami Stadium, winning the Big West Conference, and hosting an NCAA Regional.

“That’s our vision,” Hill said. “The only way to do that is to have a top-20 RPI. And that’s very difficult to do on the West Coast. Therefore, we have to play the top teams and/or we get to play the top teams in those five nonconference weekends.”

He said it was the same approach he used as the University of San Diego’s head coach for 23 seasons.

“You’ve got to stuff your schedule with excellent teams in hopes of building that RPI,” said Hill, who credited predecessor Mike Trapasso for laying the schedule’s groundwork. “It’s the only way to do it. It’s high risk, high reward. Let’s go for it.”

Washington State’s head coach is Brian Green, who was a UH assistant coach in 2003-04.

The Tony Gwynn Classic is named after the late Hall of Fame outfielder, who played for the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders before spending his entire major league career with the San Diego Padres. Gwynn and Hill were teammates on San Diego State’s 1981 team. The tournament is played on the San Diego State, UC San Diego and USD campuses. Hill said the ’Bows will play in the tournament every year on the second weekend of the season. Hill said it would be a way to “expose our players to top competition around the country on the mainland.”

It has been an active week for the ’Bows. Georgia Tech pitcher Andy Archer announced he was transferring to UH. Outfielder Scotty Scott, who had entered the transfer portal, decided to return to the ’Bows for a fourth season. And right-handed pitcher Cade Halemanu will be back — this time at the front of the rotation — after exploratory negotiations could not produce an agreement during the recent Major League Baseball draft.

“Our No. 1 recruit is Cade Halemanu,” Hill mused of Halemanu, who has played three UH seasons. “We’re committed to him and his development, his health, to being a top pick next year. I anticipate a sellout opening night against Washington State (with) Cade Halemanu just pumping aspirin tablets.”