The University of Hawaii and Cal Poly baseball teams should be competing for more than just pride and bragging rights as they finish their seasons with a three-game series this week at Les Murakami Stadium.

If the Rainbow Warriors sweep the Mustangs, they end up second in the Big West standings. Cal Poly needs to win one of the three to clinch that No. 2 spot.

That’s fine and dandy, but it would be better if they were playing with something tangible on the line, like seeding in a conference tournament that would help determine a second conference representative in the NCAAs.

“It’s the only way the Big West will get two bids,” first-year Hawaii coach Rich Hill said. “It’s absolutely time for a conference tournament.”

It’s sad, considering what a powerhouse of a baseball conference it used to be. And it’s also sad if you’re a UH or Poly fan, considering how hot these teams have been — not hot enough to catch UC Santa Barbara, which has already clinched the conference championship and the automatic bid, but sizzling nonetheless.

The Mustangs have won 11 in a row and are 20-7 in the conference and 35-20 overall. The ’Bows are 18-9 in the Big West. Overall, they’ve won 19 of their past 25 games after starting the season 8-16.

Count UH center fielder Cole Cabrera among the many advocates for a Big West Tournament.

“If we take care of business this week, I’ll have second place three times in the conference, and no NCAA regionals,” said Cabrera, a graduate transfer from Cal Poly, which tied for second in the conference his sophomore year of 2019 and was second outright when he was a freshman in 2018.

Not that second place in the conference standings is a guarantee that you win the tournament. But, at least in theory, you have the best chance other than the regular-season champion, and seeding gives you an easier path than the other contenders.

The last time two Big West baseball teams went to the NCAAs was 2017, when Long Beach State won the league championship and Cal State Fullerton made it as an at-large team.

That’s enough whining for now — even Hill admitted the Rainbows put themselves in a bad spot with their slow start.

But especially when you consider this was his first year at UH the midseason turnaround is remarkable.

Hill describes it as “semi-miraculous.”

He didn’t hesitate when asked to identify a turning point.

On Sunday, April 3, UH was down 6-4 and on the verge of being swept at UC Santa Barbara when Naighel Ali’i Calderon singled with two outs and nobody on in the ninth.

“From there it all changed. That was (the start of) the second season,” Hill said.

Before the Gauchos could get the third out, the ‘Bows had gone up 7-6, and eventually won 13-9 in 13 innings.

The next day, UH played a single game at USC before returning home.

“National program, but our guys had their chests puffed out, and we won,” Hill said.

The Rainbows almost didn’t make it to the game in time.

“We got caught in that hectic L.A. traffic,” said Cabrera, who went 2-for-4 and scored twice in the 9-7 win. “We ended up not having time to do our normal stretching, and just warmed up playing catch for 10 minutes. I think those two games are where our mojo started.”

The record confirms that, as the ‘Bows won six more in a row, sweeping UC Riverside and Cal State Bakersfield.

Since the Santa Barbara series nearly two months ago, UH has not lost consecutive games, and the Rainbows have won all six series against Big West opponents.

In college baseball, Sundays — when the final game of a three-game series is usually played — are a test of team depth and wise use of a pitching staff. Since the start of conference play, the Rainbows are 8-1 on Sundays (and they won the one time the final game of a series was played on Saturday).

This is one of those teams that is better than the sum of its parts.

“Coach Hill has a magic moment award he gives out to the guy who made the biggest play of the game,” Cabrera said. “It’s a different guy every single game. I’ve never been on a team like this before, where everybody makes big contributions and guys are constantly picking each other up.”

Regardless of what happens this weekend, the Rainbows will finish above .500 in the Big West for the first time since UH joined the conference in 2013.

Maybe this all shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, considering Hill’s track record. He had won more than a thousand games as a college head coach with nine NCAA Tournament appearances before taking over at Manoa last June.

His personality seemed like a good fit for Hawaii from the beginning.

But who knew he’d field a winning team in year one?