For the Hawaii baseball team, the preliminaries are main-event attractions.

The Rainbow Warriors released an ambitious 2018 schedule that features a three-game series at Louisiana State, the 2017 College World Series runner-up. The Tigers led the nation in attendance at 10,644 per home game.

“It’s a great atmosphere for our guys,” coach Mike Trapasso said of the March 9-11 series in Baton Rouge, La. “(LSU is) one of the best programs in the history of college baseball. Our guys will get a kick out of going down there. I like to go into hostile environments in the nonconference.”

The ’Bows also will play at Fresno State on May 11-13.

“You can’t go into more hostile environments than Baton Rouge or Fresno,” Trapasso said. “Those are two really tough places to play. It’s good for us. We like to challenge ourselves and play good clubs that will get us ready for what is one of the toughest conferences in all of baseball, the Big West. I don’t see a downside.”

The ’Bows open the 2018 season with a four-game series against Air Force on Feb. 16-19 at Les Murakami Stadium. The Falcons led the nation with a .344 batting average in 2017.

The following weekend, the ’Bows play host to Brigham Young, renewing a 74-game rivalry. The last meeting between the teams was in 2002.

The ’Bows also have nonconference series against Loyola Marymount (March 1-4), Illinois State (March 15-17) and Seton Hall (March 23-28). There are single games at Pacific (April 2) and Cal State Bakersfield (April 18).

In Big West play, the ’Bows are at home against UC Riverside (April 13-15), Cal State Northridge (April 27-29), Cal Poly (May 4-6) and Long Beach State (May 18-20), and on the road against UC Irvine (March 29-31), UC Davis (April 6-8), Cal State Fullerton (April 20-22) and UC Santa Barbara (May 24-26).

The ’Bows return three starting pitchers (Neil Uskali, Dominic DeMiero and Jackson Rees), a closer (Dylan Thomas) and six starting position players. The ’Bows begin the fall training program on Sept. 26.