Rainbows picked third in WAC; 4 earn preseason honors

Collin Bennett’s a little too busy to worry about preseason accolades.

When notified before Wednesday afternoon’s practice that he’d been selected to the preseason All-Western Athletic Conference team at third base, he shrugged his shoulders and let out a small smile.

"I didn’t even know that," Bennett said. "That’s surprising that people have that much confidence in me over there."

Bennett was one of four Rainbows selected to the team, which was picked by the conference’s seven head coaches. He’s joined by senior pitcher Matt Sisto and juniors Breland Almadova and Pi‘ikea Kitamura.

The defending regular-season co-champion Rainbows were selected third, behind Fresno State and San Jose State, which split the seven first-place votes.

The Bulldogs have at least shared the regular-season title in five of the past six seasons.

"Fresno’s got some great players returning and I really like San Jose State’s team they’ve got returning," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "You’d look at those (teams) when you vote, but you really don’t even know yet."

Both Bennett and Kitamura were selected at positions where they only played a handful of games last season.

Bennett is expected to make a full-time move to third base this season and Kitamura, who held that position for most of last year, will move to shortstop.

"It’s come along a lot better than I thought," said Bennett, who started three games at third as a junior before moving back to the outfield. "In the beginning, I said, ‘This is weird,’ because I hadn’t played this position in like 10 years.

"Last year I had two days of ground balls (to prepare), but I feel like now I’ve had a full season under my belt."

Almadova made the team after a banner sophomore season when he hit .298 with 16 doubles and 54 runs scored and finished third in the WAC with 16 stolen bases.

Sisto was 5-5 with a 3.67 ERA as a junior and was named to the All-WAC tournament team after tossing seven shutout innings in a win over San Jose State.

Only four votes separated the top three teams in the league. Nevada and New Mexico State finished tied for fourth with Louisiana Tech and Sacramento State rounding out the poll.

New Mexico State’s Zac Fisher is the preseason Player of the Year and San Jose State junior Zack Jones was tabbed as the Pitcher of the Year.

The Rainbows begin the season Feb. 17 against Oregon.

Brackenridge out for the season

Junior Kalani Brackenridge is the second UH player lost for the season with an injury after suffering a stress fracture in his right leg.

Trapasso said Brackenridge will have surgery on it next week.

The Kapolei alumnus has played sparingly in his first two seasons, hitting .188 (13-for-69) with two doubles and 12 runs scored.

Right-hander Connor Little is also out for the year after fracturing his right ankle during Christmas break.

Hanawahine waiting on appeal

Junior Kalei Hanawahine, a Kamehameha graduate who transferred after two seasons at San Diego, is still awaiting word on an appeal to the NCAA to be eligible to play this season.

Hanawahine appeared in 32 games for the Toreros last season, hitting .217.

If eligible, he’d contend for a corner outfield spot and would provide a much-needed lefty bat in the lineup.