Sunday is the best day to write about University of Hawaii baseball. The games start at 1 p.m., not in the evening. That takes our hated nemesis, deadline, out of the equation. Interviews with coach Mike Trapasso and players can be more insightful. And since it’s usually the end of a series, we can reflect upon its entirety, and what’s to come.
There’s been a slight problem, though.
The 2016 Rainbow Warriors — who at 17-17 (6-3 Big West) are the best UH baseball team since at least 2012 — are 1-5 in Sunday home games. After winning the opener, they lost again Sunday, 5-2, to Cal Poly, giving the Mustangs the three-game series.
I know the ‘Bows win because I read Billy Hull’s account of victories. I’ve also watched them do so several times from the Les Murakami Stadium stands on nights off.
But never on a Sunday.
I didn’t write about the lone home sabbath day win March 20 against Chicago State because UH basketball was still a red-hot story. Incidentally, since the Basketbows upset Cal in the NCAA Tournament on March 18, the Basebows have gone 11-5 , including 6-3 in the Big West.
Prior, UH was 6-12 and it looked like another long, losing season was in the offing. Regular readers might remember I left an 18-0 loss to New Mexico (on a Sunday, of course) so early that even Dodgers fans shook their heads and their foam fingers at me.
It sounded like classic coachspeak at the time, but Trapasso was true to his word. He said his team would be OK. They would throw strikes. They would hit the ball. They would catch the ball.
They would win.
But he didn’t specify which days of the week. Or where, for that matter. Take away the Sunday home games, and UH is 16-12 overall, 10-2 since March 18, and 6-1 in the Big West. Even after this weekend’s cooler.
Is there an explanation for 1-5 at the friendly confines on the day of rest? Can we draw conclusions about pitching depth? (Some of us remember when Hawaii was so deep Brady Perreira, who usually pitched on Sundays, piled up 30 career wins.)
Can’t blame it all on No. 3 starting pitcher Alex Hatch. In five of his nine starts he’s allowed two earned runs or fewer, and Sunday it was three in six innings. Errors hurt the losing team in all three games of this series.
“You can’t win on Sunday scoring just two runs,” Trapasso said, noting that the opponents usually aren’t throwing their aces.
At some point UH will need another middle-reliever to step up. But that’s true for almost every team.
As for away from home, so far the day of the week hasn’t mattered and the road Warriors are 5-1. Going back to last season, they have a nine-game winning streak in Big West road games. That bodes well with upcoming series at Cal Northridge (1-8, 22-13) and first-place UC Santa Barbara (5-1, 24-7-1). The long road trip includes a midweek solo game at Loyola Marymount.
The next Sunday home game is May 8, against Long Beach State.
Maybe the entire team should take the advice Trapasso gives to batters whose line shots always find their way into fielders’ gloves:
“Come to chapel with me,” he says.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.