Dozen arms ready to pitch

THIRD OF 3 PARTS

The letters ‘TBA’ once again fill out Hawaii’s opening weekend pitching rotation.

Unlike the past two years, when ‘TBA’ basically meant anybody healthy enough to pitch, this season’s ‘TBA’ spot will go to someone who will have to earn it.

"From a pitching standpoint, the last two years we’ve got into the season with an abnormal outlook of how are we going to even piece together a four-game series," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "Now we’re back to what we are used to for the decade prior to that."

The starting rotation will open the season with high-profile junior-college recruit Tyler Brashears becoming the first newcomer to start on opening day for UH since Jeff Coleman in 2001.

Behind him is lefty Quintin Torres-Costa, who is healthy after a two-year setback due to Tommy John surgery.

The surprise of the group is junior L.J. Brewster, who for now will pitch third in the rotation.

The converted third baseman opened eyebrows when he came on last season to pitch an inning against UC Irvine, and showed a fastball touching 93 mph with a wicked 12-to-6 curveball.

He pitched as a reliever last summer and came back to UH in the fall expecting to possibly close. As he continued to develop his secondary pitches, he began to realize he might be in for a starter’s role.

"I had no thought of being the starter when I came back (to school)," Brewster said. "As the fall went on I started developing some pitches and threw more pitches for strikes and we decided to try it."

He started building up his pitch count from 30 and hit 90 for the first time in a scrimmage on Monday. He admitted feeling "a little gassed" at the end, but it’s all part of the process of becoming a legit Division I pitcher.

"Moving him to pitcher only was key and I think him having this fall to just focus on pitching was a big plus for him," Trapasso said. "He started to develop pitchability as opposed to last year when all we saw was his arm strength."

All three must perform well to keep their spots because there are plenty of other guys chomping at the bit to enter the rotation.

Freshman right-hander Ben Mora, junior righty Kyle Von Ruden and senior left-hander Andrew Jones could all find themselves starting the series finale on Monday.

Jones, another UH pitcher who had Tommy John surgery in 2013, threw 18 innings last year, but like Torres-Costa, wasn’t close to 100 percent.

With another offseason to get ready, the left-hander has gotten his velocity back in the low-90s, which is where it was when he had that memorable UH debut against Oregon.

Jones struck out four in 2 2⁄3 innings and didn’t allow a ball to leave the infield before suffering the elbow injury.

"The guys that are coming back from injury, except for Jarrett (Arakawa), they have arrived," Trapasso said. "That’s the exciting thing. Even Lawrence (Chew) is ahead of schedule and throwing in the mid-80s and doing OK."

Arakawa, who Trapasso said would be his opening night starter if healthy, had a setback in January coming back from a second shoulder surgery.

He’s still hoping to eventually get back into the rotation and would start immediately if healthy enough to throw enough pitches.

The bullpen will be anchored by 6-foot-2 junior-college transfer Josh Pigg, Cody Culp and Eric Gleese from the right side with Chew and Matt Valencia coming in from the left.

Whoever doesn’t get that fourth spot in the starting rotation will also be valuable additions to the bullpen, giving Trapasso a good 11 or 12 arms to work with right off the bat.

It will be a much different look than last year, when no full-time reliever pitched more than 28 innings.