The "what if" game is an excruciating one to play for the Hawaii baseball team.

The Rainbow Warriors are 4-5 heading into their first road trip of the season that starts Thursday in Malibu, Calif., against Pepperdine (4-4).

Not only have four of those loses been by one run, but UH has had the tying run at third in the bottom of the ninth in each of those matchups, including three times with less than two outs.

UH failed to score in each of those situations.

"After having a couple of days to decompress you have a feeling of definite optimism but definite frustration," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "You’re optimistic because you’ve shown you’re capable of playing well and when you play well you can play with anybody, but it’s been frustrating in that I’ve never been in a stretch where in a week you lose four games with the tying run on third base in the bottom of the ninth."

The team left Hawaii on Wednesday for the first of five regular-season road trips, which are the most since 2009.

Hawaii starts with four games against the Waves, who were one win away from advancing to the College World Series last year before losing to TCU in a Super Regional.

The ‘Bows will stay on the mainland for four more days before competing in the Houston College Classic March 6-8 against Nebraska, No. 25 Baylor and No. 6 Houston.

"It’s a little better in that it’s more conventional college baseball in which you play four days then have four days off and then play three games," said Trapasso, whose team played nine games in nine days to start the season.

The taxing start didn’t affect a pitching staff that held opponents to three runs or less in six of nine games.

UH’s four starting pitchers have combined for a 3.47 ERA and top relievers Matt Valencia and Cody Culp have tossed 11 shutout innings, allowing only three hits in seven appearances.

Juniors L.J. Brewster and Kyle Von Ruden have done exceptionally well as the weekend starters with Brewster posting a 2.19 ERA and Von Ruden allowing only three earned runs in 11 1/3 innings. Tyler Brashears will continue to serve as the No. 1 starter with sophomore Quintin Torres-Costa the No. 2 guy. Torres-Costa has struck out 15 in 10 2/3 innings but gave up six runs to Hofstra in his last outing.

"I’m pretty comfortable with those four guys," Trapasso said. "They’ve all given us quality starts. Every now and then for one guy or another, an inning might get away from them but it’s pretty solid overall."

The staff could get even deeper with the return of senior Jarrett Arakawa, who has a career 3.36 ERA in 225 1/3 innings.

Arakawa had his second shoulder surgery last summer but is up to 30 pitches off the mound and could see his first action next week in Texas.

He threw a bullpen session on Tuesday and will throw again on Sunday. If that goes well, he could make an appearance at Minute Maid Park.

"It’s not an impossibility," Trapasso said. "He’s going on this trip because he’s really close to where, if he looks good, he’ll start the progression of throwing to hitters."

Arakawa never fully healed from his first labrum surgery and pitched 48 1/3 innings last season despite still having a tear in his shoulder. Even with that, he went 2-1 in 10 starts with a 2.42 ERA.

"I can’t say that I’m 100 percent as far as where I want to be, but I feel like I could go out and contribute," Arakawa said. "I’m dying to get back out there. Hopefully I can help out this trip."

The Waves are coming off a three-game sweep of Butler last weekend but have lost midweek games to Big West teams Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara and dropped two of three to Tulane.

UH split a four-game series with Pepperdine last season at Les Murakami Stadium.