While preparing for tonight’s opener of a four-game series against Oregon, the Hawaii baseball team somberly reflected on the plight of a city it had recently visited.
On Tuesday, two days after returning from a road trip against Vanderbilt, the Rainbow Warriors learned that tornadoes had carved through Nashville, Tenn.
Head coach Mike Trapasso noted the ’Bows had stayed for five days in a hotel that was a few miles from an area severely damaged. “Our heart goes out to those people,” Trapasso said. “I went to school in Oklahoma and grew up in St. Louis. I know how tornadoes can strike quickly and deadly. It’s scary.”
Right fielder Scotty Scott grew up in Houston, where he has endured severe hurricanes. “I’ve seen acts of natural disasters and how they’ve hit,” Scott said. “Hurricanes, you can kind of prepare for. Tornadoes, you can’t. It’s 15 minutes and you’re hitting shelters. … It’s definitely heartbreaking. My heart goes out to not just Vanderbilt fans, but everyone in Nashville. The Southern hospitality was real when we went there. It sucks for anyone to go through a natural disaster.”
On Wednesday, the ’Bows practiced for the first time since returning from Nashville. Trapasso announced Logan Pouelsen will be the starting pitcher tonight and Aaron Davenport on Friday night. Trapasso said Brandon Ross, who is scheduled to pitch on Saturday night, has been “feeling under the weather” recently. Trapasso said he will wait to see which pitchers are used in the first three games before naming Sunday’s starter.
Trapasso said Pouelsen and Davenport overcame early struggles to settle against Vanderbilt. After allowing three runs in the second inning, Pouelsen retired 10 of the next 13 batters. Trapasso said Pouelsen, a senior right-hander, has worked on a mechanical flaw to improve his consistency on cross-over fastballs. Against the right-handed Pouelsen, left-swinging hitters are batting .211, righties are hitting .289.
Pouelsen said the key is getting comfortable. “Sometimes it takes a little longer than other times,” Pouelsen said. “Once I find it, I normally tend to stay in pounding the zone.”
Davenport has been the ’Bows’ best starting pitcher. In the past three games, he is 3-0 with a 1.40 earned-run average. After throwing a 50 pitches in the first two innings against Vanderbilt, he threw 59 more in the next four innings. He finished with six scoreless innings while allowing three hits and striking out six.
“He showed tremendous growth last week with his maturity and settling down,” Trapasso said of Davenport. “After pitching too much on emotion early, he realized it, and just settled in, and started pitching instead of throwing. He was outstanding. We need that effort going forward.”
Davenport said he has learned to “slow the game down. I would step off the mound. When I was in the dugout after the second inning, I was thinking to myself, ‘OK, too many pitches.’ I wanted to go deep into the game, and I needed to be more efficient.”
Trapasso said he will decide this morning on tonight’s availability of two of his top relievers. Jeremy Wu-Yelland threw 65 pitches in four scoreless innings on Sunday. Carter Loewen pitched in relief on Saturday and Sunday.
HAWAII BASEBALL
At Les Murakami Stadium
>> Who: Hawaii vs. Oregon
>> When: 6:35 p.m. today, Friday, Saturday; 1:05 p.m. Sunday
>> Probables: Today: Logan Pouelsen (RHP 0-2, 6.14) vs. RHP [JR] Cullen Kafka (RHP 0-1, 6.75); Friday: Aaron Davenport (RHP, 3-0, 2.01) vs. Robert Ahlstrom (LHP, 2-0, 2.89); Saturday: Brandon Ross (LHP, 1-0, 0.68) vs. Peyton Fuller (RHP, 1-0, 2.40); Sunday: TBA
>> Radio: 1500-AM (Thursday-Saturday), 1420-AM / 92.7 FM (Sunday)
