Two keys when analyzing University of Hawaii baseball as it heads into Big West competition are SOS and TBA.

Last year at this time SOS stood for that old universal distress signal, Save Our Ship. The Rainbow Warriors were leaking and sinking from early on, suffering all those pitching injuries coupled with a massive hitting slump.

They staggered into port at 16-35, with just four more wins than UH has now less than halfway through the 2014 campaign.

Now SOS refers more to strength of schedule. In February, the slate looked nearly as insanely difficult as 2013’s. It turns out it was indeed pretty tough, as four-game sets against nationally ranked Oregon and Texas and borderline Pepperdine place the Rainbow Warriors at 12th or 14th in SOS.

At first thought, 1-7 against the ranked Ducks and Longhorns might seem OK, since UH is 11-5 against the rest after Sunday’s solid 4-2 win over UAB for a 3-1 series win and overall .500 mark.

Then you consider what awaits Hawaii the next three weeks to start conference play: at UC Santa Barbara and at home against UC Irvine and Cal Poly. UCSB is ranked 19th and Cal Poly is seventh. Later in April, UH plays at ninth-ranked Fullerton.

Yes, as bad as the Big West is in basketball, it is superb in baseball.

There’s hope though, because right now the Rainbow Warriors — winners of five of their past six — aren’t the same team as the one that was swept by the Ducks to open the season, or even the one that lost three of four close games at Texas.

"We got through that, and we’re prepared for conference play now," coach Mike Trapasso said.

It sounds like a press release quote, but there’s evidence to back it up.

The shaky defense to start the season has settled down; UH has just three errors in the past six games.

The offense hasn’t been spectacular, but the Rainbow Warriors’ late-inning hitting has improved; four of the past five wins were walk-offs or products of eighth-inning rallies.

The starting pitching has been so solid that there probably isn’t a spot in the rotation for Scott Kuzminsky, who was dominant as the anchorman in the fourth game of the past two series.

The Big West series are just three games, and Matt Cooper, Scott Squier and Jarrett Arakawa are pretty much locked in. The last time UH did not get a quality start (at least six innings with three or fewer earned runs allowed) was eight games ago, when Kuzminsky allowed two in two-plus innings at Texas.

But that doesn’t mean Trapasso can’t go with TBA, the abbreviation for "To Be Announced," instead of naming his entire rotation before the UCSB series. Why not give the Gauchos something to think about?

"We actually did that a lot last year," he said.

The difference? It was a necessity because of all the injuries, and Trapasso truly didn’t know who would be available. This year it’s because he has some pitching depth and options.

He’ll likely need them all in the Big West.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.