As Rainbows say aloha, it’s anyone’s race

As is the case at least once every decade, the Western Athletic Conference will undergo a major overhaul for the 2013 season.

For the first time since it joined the league in 1980 however, Hawaii is one of the teams saying goodbye.

After 33 years and numerous changes within the conference, the Rainbows baseball program will bolt for the Big West next season, ending the longest current tenure of one team in the WAC.

During its run, Hawaii has produced five coach-of-the-year awards, three players of the year, a pitcher of the year and freshman of the year.

With one more this season, UH will also produce 100 different All-WAC honorees, including a record seven in 1987.

Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso has been around for one third of those seasons, winning three different coach-of-the-year awards, including last year when UH won a share of the regular-season championship.

"I won’t miss the WAC as far as the travel and things like that, but I will definitely miss the people," Trapasso said. "I’ll miss playing Fresno every year but we’re going to try and continue to play — I really want to."

The Bulldogs also happen to be the team UH kicks off conference play against starting Thursday at Les Murakami Stadium.

The WAC has tweaked the series format again, deciding on three-game series instead of the four that have been played for the last four years.

The 18 total league games is the second fewest during UH’s run in the WAC, leaving little time to battle for position in the postseason tournament.

"If you have a really bad weekend, it could drop you a couple of spots in the standings, easy," Trapasso said. "But over the past few years it still always boils down to the tournament. It’s the schedule we have."

The tournament will again be held at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz., where the Rainbows have thrived. UH has advanced to the title game both times it’s been played there and won it all in 2010, doing so for the first time in 18 years.

This year’s team has seven holdovers from that year, including senior Collin Bennett, who holds the WAC record for most hits (13) and doubles (7) in a single tourney.

"To be honest, we were going into that tournament probably not expecting to win it and then Kolten (Wong) hits the walk-off that pretty much got us going," Bennett said. "After that it kind of seemed like we couldn’t be stopped."

Hawaii beat Fresno State twice that year, but the Bulldogs returned the favor last season, defeating UH in the title game. The two schools have played 18 times over the past three seasons, with the Bulldogs holding an 11-7 edge.

"You try to look at every game pretty much the same, although you can’t help but naturally get a little more pumped up playing your first league game and it’s against Fresno," said Bennett, one of three Rainbows hitting over .300. "I think especially this being the first series we want to try to win two of three or get a sweep and set the tone for WAC play."

Fresno State was picked as the preseason favorite, but no team is currently hotter than New Mexico State, which has won 14 in a row.

Unlike previous seasons though, its gaudy record is legit with five wins in eight games against teams with an RPI of 50 or better.

Only two teams enter Wednesday under .500 and San Jose State (12-13) and Sacramento State (14-15) are only one game under.

"It’s interesting because New Mexico State is off to a great start and then you look at Nevada, which has beat a lot of people, and Fresno is still in my mind the team to beat," Trapasso said. "You don’t have any teams that are really struggling and other than New Mexico State, nobody is really rolling, but things always change once you get into the WAC."

WAC BASEBALL CAPSULES

Here’s a closer look at the seven teams based on predicted order of finish in a vote by the league’s head coaches (Ratings percentage index and strength of schedule numbers from boydsworld.com):

1. FRESNO STATE (14-14)
>> Coach: Mike Batesole, 10th season (343-250)
>> RPI/SOS: 106/94
>> Key players: OF Aaron Judge, So. (.303, 21 runs, 2 HRs); LHP Tyler Linehan, So. (3-2, 1.47 ERA, 49 IP, 53 K); INF Pat Hutcheson, Sr. (.293, 15 runs, 7 SBs); LHP Justin Haley, Jr. (3-2, 2.35 ERA, 38 1⁄3 IP, 37 K).
>> Outlook: The Bulldogs have won five of the past six regular-season titles and four of six tournament titles. FSU lost five position starters and four starting pitchers from last year’s team. The Bulldogs rank in the top 20 in the country, striking out 8.5 batters per game, but hit just .257 as a team and have only two regulars hitting over .300.

2. SAN JOSE STATE (12-13)
>> Coach: Sam Piraro, 25th season (796-616-6)
>> RPI/SOS: 198/169
>> Key players: RHP/INF Zack Jones, Jr. (2-1, 2.73 ERA, 261⁄3 IP, 32 K, 4 SVs); INF Jacob Valdez, So. (.286, 2 3Bs, 12 runs); INF Caleb Natov, So. (.297, 7 2Bs, 13 RBIs)
>> Outlook: The Spartans have started seven different pitchers, including senior right-hander Esteban Guzman, who has thrown only 171⁄3 innings. Freshman Kalei Contrades is a 2011 alumnus of Saint Louis and is hitting .268 (11-for-41) with five runs scored and also has appeared in five games on the mound, allowing two earned runs in 8 1⁄3 innings with five strikeouts.

3. HAWAII (17-12)
>> Coach: Mike Trapasso, 11th season (331-281)
>> RPI/SOS: 76/82
>> Key players: RHP Matt Sisto, Sr. (4-3, 2.76 ERA, 49 IP, 3 BB); LHP Jarrett Arakawa, So. (3-2, 1.32 ERA, 47 2⁄3 IP, 35 K); INF Stephen Ventimilia, Fr. (.323, 23 runs, 8 SBs); INF Collin Bennett, Sr. (.312, 4 2Bs, 16 RBIs).
>> Outlook: Hawaii has a revamped infield from a year ago and starts up to four freshmen in its everyday lineup. Hawaii’s 2.65 team ERA is ninth in the country and it also ranks in the top 10 with 1.92 walks allowed per nine innings (second) and 34 double plays (fourth). Arakawa’s 1.32 ERA ranks 17th in the country among starting pitchers and Ventimilia’s 27 walks drawn is 12th.

4. NEVADA (15-12)
>> Coach: Gary Powers, 30th season (895-717-5)
>> RPI/SOS: 78/58
>> Key players: INF Joe Kohan, Sr. (.355, 6 2Bs, 13 RBIs); OF Brooks Klein, Jr. (.330, 5 HRs, 21 RBIs); RHP Tom Jameson, Jr. (4-1, 2.63 ERA, .248 BAA); RHP Braden Shipley, So. (4-2, 2.75 ERA, 39 1⁄3 IP, 38 K).
>> Outlook: Klein is the reigning WAC hitter of the week after batting for the cycle in a win over Brigham Young on Saturday. The Wolf Pack are the only WAC team to rank in the top four in both pitching and hitting and lead the league with 33 stolen bases. Early-season schedule includes series wins against New Mexico and BYU and a victory over UC Irvine.

5. NEW MEXICO STATE (23-8)
>> Coach: Rocky Ward, 13th season (357-359-2)
>> RPI/SOS: 15/24
>> Key players: C Zac Fisher, Jr. (.385, 11 2Bs, 42 RBIs); INF Parker Hipp, Jr. (.349, 9 2Bs, 31 runs); OF Tanner Waite, Sr. (.283, 36 runs); LHP Ryan Beck, Jr. (3-1, 3.77 ERA, 45 1⁄3 IP, 52 K)
>> Outlook: A great nonconference record isn’t unusual for an Aggies squad that has finished higher than fourth only once since joining the WAC in 2006. NMSU upped its strength of schedule this year and has won three of four over Wake Forest and owns two wins over Arizona and one each against New Mexico and Texas Tech. NMSU leads the country in doubles, walks and runs scored and is sixth in batting average.

6. LOUISIANA TECH (14-14)
>> Coach: Wade Simoneaux, 10th season (250-284-1)
>> RPI/SOS: 127/113
>> Key players: RHP Caleb Dudley, Jr. (4-0, 4.50 ERA, 4 SVs); INF Ryan Gebhardt, So. (.356, 10 2Bs, 20 runs); INF Alex Williams, Sr. (.333, 8 HRs, 30 RBIs); RHP Phil Maton, Fr. (5-2, 3.07 ERA, 44 IP, 42 K)
>> Outlook: Simoneaux recorded his 250th win on Sunday for a Bulldogs team that is second in the WAC with a .290 batting average. Williams is 23rd in the country with eight home runs and also ranks in the top 60 in RBIs and total bases. LaTech holds impressive wins over Vanderbilt, Texas-Arlington, Nebraska and Dallas Baptist.

7. SACRAMENTO STATE (14-15)
>> Coach: Reggie Christiansen, second season (33-54)
>> RPI/SOS: 216/138
>> Key players: INF Rhys Hoskins, Fr. (.430, 6 HRs, 27 RBIs); C Derrick Chung, Sr. (.327, 10 2Bs, 22 runs); RHP Tanner Mendonca, So. (4-3, 2.52 ERA, 3 CGs, .243 BAA); INF Will Soto, So. (.303, 12 2Bs, 22 runs)
>> Outlook: The Hornets have shown lots of improvement in Christiansen’s second year. Mendonca is the reigning WAC pitcher of the week after throwing a shutout against Bakersfield last week. The Hornets are the seventh-best fielding team in the country and rank in the top 20 in doubles. Hoskins’ .430 batting average is No. 16 in the country.