After that Bad Ninth on Good Friday for the University of Hawaii baseball team, coach Rich Hill was asked to reflect. Instead, he chose to project.

“This gives us a chance to show our character,” said Hill, after the Rainbows lost by one run for the fourth time in their last five games. “Tomorrow’s another day.”

The Friday loss was one of the cruelest I’ve seen.

It was just a one-run lead that the ‘Bows blew, but it was how it happened that made it Buckneresque.

The bases were empty with two outs, and UH was one strike away from beating Cal State Bakersfield 2-1.

A hit batsman, an error, and an infield single later and the Roadrunners were in business, while the ‘Bows were looking like Wile E. Coyote with the Acme Corporation about to fail him yet again.

It seemed like fate that James Bell would hit a two-run single to right, and then UH went down 1-2-3 in its half.

Cal State Bakersfield isn’t quite the ’27 Yankees, coming into this series with an 11-15 record, including 2-8 in the Big West.

That made it double frustrating for the ’Bows. Make that triple frustrating, since the same guys beat them by the same score the night before, too.

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It wasn’t quite as tragically dramatic as Friday’s last-out meltdown, but still not a good look at all for the home team. And the same Roadrunner used his bat as the dagger in that one — Bell’s double drove in two of the three runs that would be just enough.

Also, on Friday it was easy to point at how the ’Bows probably would have scored more than just the two runs in the second inning if they hadn’t given Bakersfield an out on the basepaths with a failed bunt attempt.

It all added up to an ominous Saturday matinee finale, with almost all zeroes going up on the scoreboard for both teams again, except for enough to make it tied at 2 going into the eighth.

They say these things happen in threes … and yes, it did. The final 3-2 for the third day in a row — with a big “but.” This time, Hawaii won. This time, Hawaii held on to a one-run lead in the ninth. This time Bell didn’t come through, he was retired routinely for the last out of the game.

You might be tempted to shrug.

So what? Hawaii salvaged one game in a series against a not-so-hot fellow Big West team.

And maybe you’re right.

But a loss here could have been a season-definer — in a bad way. If you lose enough close games it can wear enough on your collective confidence so much that it becomes what you are, and you can’t wait for the season to end.

Stone Miyao, who accounted for half of the ’Bows’ eight hits Saturday and raised his batting average 44 points, would have none of that. He talked about confidence, and building on what might seem like a routine win.

He remembers what happened last year, right around this time — which just happened to be exactly the midpoint of the 52-game season.

In the first half of Hill’s first season as UH’s coach, Hawaii was 10-16 overall. It is 14-12 now, with 23 games left to play. OK, four games better, and more wins than losses … maybe not enough improvement for the some folks, but it looks like steady progress from here.

Let’s view it from another angle, using that first line about projecting rather than reflecting. What might the future hold?

I don’t know if that thing about the best indicator of future behavior being past behavior is true all the time, but if it is for Miyao and other holdovers on this team from last year, don’t sleep on the ’Bows.

That six-games-under-.500 record halfway through the season last year was even worse a few days before — before UH beat UC Santa Barbara in extra innings to avoid being swept by the Gauchos, and then took down USC, both on the road. Those wins were the start of an eight-game winning streak, and Hawaii finished 28-24 — including 19-11 in the Big West.

With the same second half this year, UH would end the season with a winning percentage of around .600.

Just wishful thinking after a one-run win over a so-so team?

You can say so. But it’s this simple: Last year the Rainbows were bad before April and then they came together and they came alive.

Salvaging the final game of a series where they’d lost the first two was what turned things around then.

That could also be the key for the ’23 Rainbows, except they’re four wins ahead of where the were last year.