Rainbows try to avoid mental toll of arduous schedule

Five games under .500, the Hawaii baseball team’s RPI of 51 gives them a lot to play for despite a 2-7 start in the Big West.

The reason? A schedule that ranks as the second toughest in the country, according to WarrenNolan.com.

Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso has always prided himself on scheduling the toughest possible competition for the Rainbow Warriors to face every year.

But even he admits he’s started to second guess himself, especially now that UH plays in one of the toughest conferences in the country.

"This guy needs to have his head examined for the schedules he puts together," Trapasso said before Tuesday’s practice. "I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching and I still want to stay with a very difficult nonconference schedule, but we’ve got to be a little more realistic now that we’re in the Big West and look at that."

Every team except Albany, which Hawaii swept in February, is no worse than four games over .500 and won at least 19 games.

"If we played a schedule like most teams played, we’d probably be five games over .500 or better than the five games under .500 than we are now," Trapasso said. "There is a fine line when you start to feel a little bit beat up and you can definitely overschedule because confidence is a big thing."

It caught up to UH the past two weeks as the ‘Bows were swept in consecutive series at home for the second time in as many years.

Even as the schedule lightens UH plays only its second opponent with a losing record the Rainbow Warriors can’t let the previous weeks’ results linger.

"You can’t have the hangover effect and it’s hard," Trapasso said. "As much as we talk about keeping an even keel, they’ll ride the emotional roller coaster and it’s a hard thing to do, but you can’t have that hangover effect and let Cal Poly and UC Irvine beat you again."

Cal State Northridge (13-23, 2-7) is tied for last in the league with UH. The Matadors swept Hawaii at home last season, but have regressed following Matt Curtis’ dismissal as head coach after last season.

The Rainbows will be without junior Jarrett Arakawa, who will miss a second consecutive start and third this season with inflammation in his throwing shoulder.

Arakawa is on the road with the team, which left Wednesday, and could pitch the week after at Cal State Fullerton.

This is the only two-week road trip UH has this season.

First baseman Marc Flores, who clubbed his fourth home run of the season in Sunday’s loss to Cal Poly, says it’s a time for the team to come together and make a run over the final six weeks of the season.

"We’ve played the three hardest teams in the conference already and the teams we have to play (now) are good teams, but I feel like we should boat run them, seriously," Flores said. "We’re a great team and yeah we should have won a couple more games against the teams we’ve lost to, but we can make up for that."

Outside of No. 3 Cal Poly and No. 21 UC Irvine, which have raced out to 8-1 starts in league play, the rest of the conference is separated by less than three games.

"The reality now is our goal is try and find a way to get back to .500 in league, and if we do that, we will be fourth or fifth place in the conference," Trapasso said. "Our RPI may still be somewhere in the 50s … that would help us."

MURDERERS ROW
Hawaii has faced seven of the top 75 baseball teams in the country.