Hawaii’s Arakawa will miss season

Hawaii junior Jarrett Arakawa will miss the entire 2013 season with a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder.

The left-hander began feeling pain during his stint in the prestigious Cape Cod League last summer. He shut down his arm for the fall and tried to rehabilitate it for more than a month before deciding Wednesday to have surgery next week.

Normal recovery time from the surgery is eight to 12 months, according to coach Mike Trapasso.

"Obviously I’m pretty bummed," Arakawa said. "We did a lot of rehab and things just weren’t working out how I wanted it."

The left-hander from ‘Iolani has pitched at least 80 innings in each of his first two seasons, making 28 starts with a 12-10 record and 3.61 ERA.

As a sophomore, Arakawa went 7-6 with a 2.88 ERA and pitched at least seven innings in eight of his 15 starts. He struck out 70 and walked only 18 batters in 97 innings.

"The conservative rest-and-rehab approach just hasn’t caught on so he’ll be having surgery," Trapasso said. "We don’t want to wait any longer because if we do we’d be putting (the) 2014 (season) in jeopardy."

Without Arakawa, UH will have to replace 33 of the 55 starts made last season.

Sophomore Scott Squier is the only returnee with more than three starts and will begin the season in the rotation.

Trapasso said junior college transfer Andrew Jones, a left-hander who went 11-0 and struck out 80 in 71 innings at Grayson County College in Arizona last season, will also start in the opening series against Oregon beginning Feb. 15.

The Ducks are ranked No. 6 to start the season in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll. Rice, which UH hosts the following week, is No. 17.

Hawaii was picked to finish sixth in the Big West according to a preseason poll voted on by the coaches and released Thursday.

Defending champion Cal State Fullerton was picked first, followed UC Irvine, Long Beach State and Cal Poly.