No one wanted to admit it, but it really was wait ’til next year 10 games into it, with zero wins and three front-line pitchers shelved.

To the University of Hawaii baseball team’s credit, its effort didn’t reflect that. I think that’s a big reason the fan base at Les Murakami Stadium didn’t turn into empty green seats as the Rainbows struggled to the finish line of a 16-35 campaign.

If there was hopelessness, it was rarely reflected in body language, or even in lopsided scores. Nineteen of the losses were by three runs or fewer. They won four of their last six at home.

"That doesn’t make it OK," coach Mike Trapasso said, and just about everyone who follows UH baseball agrees.

This is a program that is used to winning. Maybe not as much as in Murakami’s golden era, but winning, just the same — as in above .500 in nine of the previous 10 seasons.

This disaster comes after four consecutive years of at least 30 wins each, so Trapasso probably gets a mulligan, but maybe not an extension headed into the final year of his contract. There’s speculation about a possible staff shake-up, though, which you might expect after a .239 team batting average.

Trapasso won’t address that directly yet.

"We make changes every year. We do what we have to do to give our kids a good experience," he said, minutes after returning from the team’s final road trip. "I just got off the plane, but in a year like this it’s not like we haven’t started (evaluating) yet. Have to sit down and think long and hard about what we need to do to get back to what we did."

Getting Kolten Wong back might help. That being impossible, how about his brother and seven other studs coming out of high school?

That’s actually in the works, as Waiakea catcher Kean Wong and seven other signees comprising Trapasso’s most highly touted recruiting class are on their way to Manoa — he hopes. It might be inevitable a few of them get diverted by the MLB draft.

"Kean has really jumped and could go top five or six rounds. If they’re in the top two or three rounds, I’m the first one happy for them," Trapasso said. "Outside of that, they should go to school."

Blake Taylor of Dana Hills, Calif., might be gone before he gets here. A signing bonus around $1 million can do that.

"A mid-90s lefty. Baseball America had him at 54 in its (most recent) mock draft," Trapasso said. "If that happens it wouldn’t be realistic on our part to expect him to go to school."

Then there’s Jake Bauers, a left-handed slugger from Marina, Calif., who is also climbing the charts faster than the latest Macklemore & Ryan Lewis hit.

"He’s getting a lot of publicity, and that’s making me real nervous. He was considered a sixth- or seventh-round guy and really wants to go to school," Trapasso said.

But Bauers’ moon-shot homers in the CIF playoffs are getting the scouts’ attention.

In Trapasso’s version of fantasy baseball, Wong, Taylor and Bauers — and Bryce Ah Sam, Iolana Akau, Marcus Doi, Michael Echavia and Chayce Kaaua — are texting each other right now, pledging their allegiance to each other as Rainbow Warriors for the next three years.

"Don’t think we haven’t encouraged that," he said. "I’ll send them the safety pins for their blood oath."

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783 or on Twitter as @dave_reardon.