After yet another loss, Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso could only point the finger at himself.
"All I’ve got to say is this whole season, you have to put it on me," Trapasso said over the phone. "Don’t put it on the players, put it on me. I have done an awful job of coaching these kids because with all the adversity we have faced, you can’t blame the players.
"The effort is there. They’re working their tails off. I’ve just done a bad job of getting these guys to get over the hump."
Matt Imhof took a shutout into the eighth inning and Cal Poly needed just four hits to hand the Rainbows their seventh straight loss in a 3-2 victory on Saturday night at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Reed Reilly pitched out of a jam in the eighth and earned his ninth save for the Mustangs (25-8, 6-2 Big West), who can become the fourth team to sweep UH (7-24, 2-6) in a series of at least three games this year.
Austin Wobrock had two hits and scored a run for the Rainbows, who fell to 1-10 away from home.
Prior to this season, Hawaii had lost eight games in a row only once in Trapasso’s tenure, losing the final eight of his first season in 2002.
A loss in the series finale today would give UH its second losing streak of at least eight this year.
"We’re going to continue to battle," Trapasso said. "We still have a lot of games to go, we have a lot to play for and as bad of a job as I have done, I still have time to coach better.
"This is about as low of a point as we’ve had all season."
Junior Matt Cooper (2-4) pitched Hawaii’s fifth complete game of the season and lowered his team-leading ERA to 2.53 in the loss, allowing four hits in eight innings with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Cooper moved up a spot in the rotation to pitch in a night game. Although the sun didn’t set until late in the game, Cooper reacted well to the change.
Senior Corey MacDonald (3-3, 3.38), who pitched the Rainbows to their only road win earlier this season in Las Vegas against Loyola Marymount, will go today opposite Cal Poly’s Bryan Granger (5-2, 3.80).
