Moments after completing a four-game sweep of Hawaii, Oregon coach George Horton stayed away from making any judgments about his club.

"You don’t really know who the best teams are until about 25 games in because then everybody settles in, the younger players get experience, and then you find out how good or bad teams are," he said.

Four is a small sample size in a 53-game season, which is good news for a Hawaii club still looking for its first win.

The Rainbows (0-4) hope it comes tonight in the first of a four-game series against No. 13 Rice (2-2) at Les Murakami Stadium.

Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso used the opening series to play 14 of his 17 full-time active position players at least once against the Ducks.

UH’s top six hitters by average were making their Rainbow debuts, and two of the three pitchers not to give up a run against Oregon were also new, including junior Matt Cooper, who held the Ducks scoreless over 41⁄3 innings.

"A lot of times opening weekend for new guys has a lot of nerves involved but yet they came out and really did well," Trapasso said. "They didn’t let the environment get to them and put up good numbers."

Freshman Andre Real figures to be a fixture at the top of the lineup after hitting .313 (5-for-16) with a double and a team-high three runs.

Real and shortstop Austin Wobrock were the only two out of five regulars to start all four games.

"It was good that we all got our nerves out but it would have been nice to win at least one game against Oregon," said Real, the only Rainbow to reach base in all four games. "Eventually over time I think we’ll be more comfortable at the plate."

Sophomore Steven Ventimilia started the first 56 games of his college career at second — including the opener last Friday — but was held out of the starting lineup the next three games.

Ventimilia hit .293 as a freshman and led the team with 42 runs and 14 stolen bases out of the leadoff spot.

"I think it’s too early to say anything other than it’s safe to say Andre needs to play pretty much every day whether it’s second base or DH," Trapasso said. "He’s a hitter and what he’s done the first four games hasn’t been a surprise to us because we knew he could be good offensively."

Junior Jerry Kleman swung the hottest bat of any Rainbow, hitting .417 (5-for-12) while starting the final three games at first base.

"Offensively we had a lot of hits but just didn’t have any huge hits with two outs and runners in scoring position," Kleman said. "I’ve never played in front of a crowd that big before but I felt really comfortable — after that first at-bat."

Hawaii again will have its work cut out for it as the Owls come to town for the first time since 2005 in their last season in the Western Athletic Conference.

Rice jumped as high as 10th in one of the major polls after winning two of three against Stanford, which opened the season in the top 10.

Preseason Conference USA pitcher of the year Austin Kubitza earned the league’s first weekly pitching honor after striking out 12 in six shutout innings against the Cardinal.

Junior John Simms, a reliever who entered the starting rotation late last year, took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in Sunday’s series-clinching win.

"Our pitching looks good so far, but it’s hard to say how good we’re going to be. It’s early," Rice coach Wayne Graham said. "I imagine we play the same game (as Hawaii). Bunt, hit and run, good defense.

"Neither team has hit that much so they should be close games."