HILO >> A week after the real game was held in Santa Clara, Calif., Hilo’s baseball version of the Super Bowl will breathe life into Francis Wong Stadium.

Basketball games held at nearby Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium have been moved to earlier in the day and high school teams traveling to Maui for a preseason tournament are trying to get back early to catch the first meeting between Hawaii Hilo and Hawaii in eight years.

The Vulcans host the Rainbow Warriors in the season opener tonight and a big crowd is expected for UH’s first appearance on the Big Island since 2007.

“Manoa is a big thing,” said UHH coach Kallen Miyataki, who took over the position in 2014 after serving 17 years as an assistant and associate head coach. “When I was an assistant, I think the biggest crowd was 1,400 when they played at our field and it was standing room only, but I also know that Wong Stadium is a lot bigger than our facility.”

The game will mark Hawaii’s first road opener since 1994 and serve as a homecoming for sophomore catcher Chayce Ka’aua and freshman outfielder Kobi Candaroma.

Ka’aua, who played on Hilo’s 2011 all-star team that won the Senior League World Series in Bangor, Maine, is one of seven returning starters expected in the lineup for UH, which has lost its last three openers.

“It gives me a chance to go back and play where it all started and where I played my whole life,” Ka’aua said.

Hawaii has opened with national power Oregon each of the past five years and has played a four-game series to start every season since 2009.

The teams will play only twice, with the second game Sunday at 1 p.m. Hawaii leaves for Hilo this afternoon and will return to Oahu less than 36 hours later.

It’s all much different from what has been the normal, but Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso, who enters his 15th season, is confident his team will have the right approach for the trip.

“It’s a normal opening week feel where your guys are excited,” Trapasso said. “The only thing that might be a little different that I really like is this group of guys are really good at staying on task. They’ve been very focused from early September until now and so there’s not a lot of extra emotion or cheerleading. They’re focused on their preparation.”

Hawaii is hoping for a different outcome than in previous years as it tries to snap a program-worst run of three straight losing seasons.

Right-hander Brendan Hornung, who headlines a completely new pitching staff, will be Hawaii’s second consecutive newcomer to start an opener.

Senior Kyle Von Ruden, one of only two UH pitchers to have started a Division I game, will go on Sunday.

Hawaii Hilo’s strength is the top of its rotation, as the Vulcans will counter with right-handers Jordan Kurokawa and David Moody.

Kurokawa, who was 3-4 with a 3.07 ERA last season, was selected the Golden State Collegiate Baseball League pitcher of the year last summer after posting a 7-0 mark with a 2.64 ERA.

“He’s our No. 1 guy,” Miyataki said of Kurokawa, a Maryknoll alumnus. “He’s a five-year guy who has developed along the way.

“I look at Hilo as a developmental program. We take a lot of kids who are just below the radar and they mature and develop. (Kurokawa) is a guy who has done that.”

Moody, who finished eighth in the same summer league pitcher of the year voting, went 1-2 with a 3.56 ERA last season for the Vulcans.

Hawaii reliever Isaac Friesen tied for sixth for the award.

UH leads the all-time series 108-20 and had won 15 straight until the Vulcans took the last meeting in 2008, 4-3 at Les Murakami Stadium.

“The (players) got really excited when I first announced (the Hawaii games),” Miyataki said. “They’re excited, but I believe they need to play within themselves. I’m trying not to get them too excited because it might go in reverse as far as how they play within their abilities, but it should be fun.

“In baseball, anything can happen. We’re just going to go out there and compete the best we can.”