In a season that has gotten away from the Hawaii baseball team, one thing has remained consistent.

Hawaii’s starting rotation has kept the team in most of its games this season, with 12 of its 25 losses coming by a single a run.

Seniors Matt Cooper and Scott Kuzminsky and juniors Jarrett Arakawa and Scott Squier have a combined 2.40 ERA in 2731⁄3 innings, with opponents hitting just .238 against them.

All four rank in the top 25 in the Big West in ERA and average 62⁄3 innings per start.

"I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a group of starters that have gone out and been that consistent," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "We have way, way less depth in our pitching than we had last year and I couldn’t be happier with the way those guys have pitched."

It begins with Cooper, the team’s No. 1 starter all season, who ranks third in the conference with 82 strikeouts and ninth in ERA at 1.61.

He’s won two Big West pitcher-of-the week awards this year and in his two seasons with the ‘Bows, has thrown two complete-game shutouts and has gone nine innings four times.

"He’s been awesome this year because he’s got that mentality of attacking hitters," said Kuzminsky, who was teammates with Cooper at Bellevue College before both transferred to UH at the same time. "He’s fun to watch and I know I watch what he does on a Friday night and try to take what he does and put it in my game plan."

Kuzminsky, who pitched just 20 innings as a junior, has been the biggest surprise of the staff.

He’s molded himself into a legitimate No. 2 starter and will start Game 2 of this weekend’s series against Long Beach State on Saturday.

Kuzminsky has pitched into the seventh inning in seven of his nine starts and has thrown two complete-game shutouts.

His career-high 14 strikeouts last Saturday against New York Institute of Technology were the most by a UH pitcher since Bryan Duquette had 15 on April 4, 1980, against UTEP.

"That’s the guy that has made the biggest jump, no question," Trapasso said. "He had a really good summer and came back as this confident kid and from Day 1 in the fall has been our most consistent guy with Coop."

Arakawa, the team’s ace two years ago, has been in and out of the starting rotation as he continues to come back from major shoulder surgery that forced him to miss all of 2013.

He’s missed four starts and has only been able to pitch 42 innings, but has been effective when he’s on the mound, going 2-1 with a 2.36 ERA.

"I’m not going to go out there if I don’t feel like I can get the job done and in that sense, it’s not surprising because I plan on doing well when I go out there," Arakawa said.

Squier, who like Cooper expects to get selected in the MLB draft next month, has struck out 65 in 74 innings with opponents hitting .233 against him.

Two bad outings — at UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton — have skewed his numbers, but the tall lefty has thrown two complete games and gone at least seven innings in eight of his 12 outings this year.

"He hasn’t been as consistent as he would like to be but really, outside of those two starts, has still given us six or seven innings for the most part," Trapasso said. "He looks at guys like Cooper and Kuzminsky and Arakawa, who have gone out there with low pitch counts and high strike percentages and is a different type of pitcher than those guys, but that doesn’t mean he’s had a bad year. He’s had a solid year."

Squier will pitch out of the bullpen this weekend against Long Beach State (23-23, 9-6), which has held opponents scoreless in four of its past six games.

LBSU has the lowest strikeout-per-game average in the Big West but is fourth in ERA at 3.12.