It’s safe to say Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso will enjoy this week a little more than normal.
The Rainbows’ farewell tour in the Western Athletic Conference has stopped in Ruston, La., for the final road series between Hawaii and Louisiana Tech.
J.C. Love Field hasn’t been unkind to the Rainbows, who are 14-9 against the Bulldogs in their home park since LaTech joined the WAC in 2002.
The travel across five time zones, however, is enough for Trapasso to call this the final road series between the two schools for a long time.
"We’ll definitely not be making this trip out of conference, but I will miss coming here because once you get here it’s a great little town," Trapasso said.
RAINBOWS BASEBALL
In Ruston, La.
» Who: Hawaii (24-16, 4-2 Western Athletic Conference) at Louisiana Tech (18-22, 1-8)
» When: 1 p.m. today and Friday; 9 a.m. Saturday
» Radio: KKEA, 1420-AM
PROBABLE STARTERS
» UH: RH Matt Sisto (7-3, 2.88); LH Jarrett Arakawa (5-3, 1.69); LH Scott Squier (3-2, 3.23)
» LaTech: RH Jeb Stefan (2-6, 4.97); RH Phil Maton (5-4, 3.19); TBA |
Hawaii begins the series 11⁄2 games behind New Mexico State, which doesn’t play another WAC game until visiting Les Murakami Stadium next weekend.
The Rainbows have won 10 of their last 14, including series wins against Fresno State and San Jose State to start conference play.
The Bulldogs are in danger of being left out of next month’s WAC tournament in Mesa, Ariz., after they were swept in consecutive series by Nevada and NMSU.
Both of those were road series. At home, the Bulldogs are 9-7 and own a .652 winning percentage since moving into J.C. Love Field 42 years ago.
"They’ve had to play at maybe the two toughest places in Las Cruces (N.M.) and Reno (Nev.) and they’re basically five pitches away from being tied for first place," Trapasso said. "Five of their eight losses in league have come on basically the last pitch of the game."
LaTech lost three juniors to the draft and graduated three other key seniors off last year’s team that won two games in the WAC tournament before being eliminated by Hawaii in a wild 18-10 affair.
They still feature a tough middle of the infield. Second baseman Austin Hedges is hitting .313 and has stolen seven bases. Shortstop Ryan Gebhardt is batting .327 with 11 doubles and 29 runs scored. First baseman Alex Williams leads the league with 10 home runs.
The Bulldogs’ pitching staff, on the other hand, ranks last in the WAC with a 5.92 ERA. That won’t help against a UH team whose 2.80 ERA is fourth-best in the country.
