Most Division I college sports teams lose their last game. That’s just the way it works because of how postseason play is organized.

With just a few exceptions (like the bowl system or college hoops with the NIT and the pay-in tourneys), no one finishes with a win except the national champions or teams that didn’t qualify for postseason play.

So, in the overwhelming number of cases, the final image of a season is at least briefly unsatisfactory. How stinging this is to the collective psyche of a team and its fans varies widely. Some season-enders are worse than others, and that’s something University of Hawaii sports fans can reflect upon today.

A loss — no matter how one-sided — can signal the end of an otherwise excellent season, like football the year of the Sugar Bowl. The nation remembers a 41-10 loss to Georgia. Warriors fans mostly remember the 12-0 regular season to get there.

So you choose how you want to remember the 2012 UH baseball team that finished Thursday, the one that was bounced out of the Western Athletic Conference tournament in two games that weren’t even close.

It’s a team that lost one of the best players in the program’s history and most of its pitching from the previous season and still finished with a winning record, so you can get away with calling it a "good" team if you want. And it has a lot of good young players, so that’s a plus, too.

Maybe that’s a reasonable excuse for the Rainbows’ inconsistency and lack of success away from home. Youth and inexperience. Regardless of that, UH needs to step up if it’s going to compete next season as it enters the Big West, which features some of college baseball’s best.

BASEBALL CONTINUED a bad trend that infected most high-profile UH teams this sports year: They won less after the midpoints of their seasons than before them.

In addition to baseball, this happened with football, men’s basketball, men’s volleyball and softball.

Women’s volleyball had the same record before its midpoint as after, losing once early in the season and then in the NCAA round of 16.

Women’s basketball was one game better after the halfway mark.

Other than the women’s tennis and volleyball teams with their WAC championships, Hawaii is leaving the conference in stunningly inglorious fashion. The baseball, softball and basketball teams combined to go 2-6 in conference tournaments, and the Wahine softball team went 0-2 in the NCAA regionals. Many picked football to win the conference, but it finished tied for fourth at 3-4.

Baseball lost seven of its last nine games. Softball — which won its first 21 — lost its last four. Football lost four of its last five. Men’s basketball lost six of its last seven and the women their last three. Men’s volleyball lost its last eight matches and didn’t make the MPSF playoffs. Water polo lost six of its last nine, including 0-3 in the MPSF playoffs.

Is there any common reason for all of these downward spirals? The only one I can think of is that Hawaii teams must travel much more than all others, and the accumulation of that over the course of a long season can wear down student-athletes.

Then again Hawaii teams in other years have overcome this — and this year, three mainland trips didn’t hurt a Manoa squad that won nine of its last 10 matches. The Wahine tennis team should be proud of the way it performed late in the season.

But overall, it was not one of UH’s most memorable sports years, largely because of late-season fades.

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Reach Dave Reardon at <@Tagline -- email1>dreardon@staradvertiser.com<@$p> or 529-4783.