Kyle Von Ruden was in for a bit of a shock to start his senior year.
The Hawaii right-hander hadn’t fully grasped the reality of UH losing three of its top pitchers to the draft until practice started back up in the fall.
Combined with the loss of four senior pitchers, Von Ruden looked around and didn’t see many familiar faces.
“It didn’t quite click to me that I was the only guy returning that had started a game,” Von Ruden said. “Once I started realizing that, I started taking steps toward learning how to work through lineups and learn how to work in all of my pitches and get those all going.”
A lot has been put on the right arm of the 6-foot Sacramento native who was 2-3 with a 4.47 ERA last season.
He didn’t allow an earned run in his first career start, going 5 2/3 innings against Oregon, and allowed only one earned run in 12 innings spanning six relief appearances in Big West play.
Von Ruden will open the season No. 2 in the rotation behind junior-college transfer Brendan Hornung.
Hornung is the second consecutive newcomer to start on opening day. Prior to Tyler Brashears in 2015, UH hadn’t had a newcomer start the first game in coach Mike Trapasso’s first 13 years.
A former pitcher himself, Trapasso has his work cut out for him this season.
Seniors Josh Pigg and Alex Hatch, who combined to throw 22 innings last season, will round out the four-man rotation to start the season.
Up to seven relievers will vie for top billing out of the bullpen and will have plenty of opportunities to separate themselves over the first part of the season.
“When we don’t have somebody returning that’s in an established role, I like to try to use matchups and let guys step up and grab their role,” Trapasso said. “We’ve got options. The issue with the ‘pen will be how the new guys mesh with the returning guys and you hope the returning guys get better than what they were in previous years because that’s the progression we focus on with pitchers getting better every year.”
Senior relievers Matt Valencia and Cody Culp had up-and-down junior years. Valencia at one point was the first lefty out of the bullpen and Culp held the closer rule early in the season.
Culp held opponents scoreless in 14 of his 21 appearances, but when he did give up runs, they came in bunches.
Valencia struck out 21 in 19 2/3 innings but wore down the second half of the season and pitched only once in the final 15 games.
“Valencia has had a very good spring,” Trapasso said. “We have options and we have bodies and there’s depth I think in there.”
