The wounds remain raw 36 years later.

Members of the University of Hawaii baseball team that nearly won the College World Series will root extra hard for their alma mater this weekend as the current Rainbows complete their season with a home series against Arizona starting today.

Even for a pitcher who went on to eight seasons as a major leaguer and another ’Bow who fashioned a rewarding career in local TV news, the memories of Omaha in 1980 are bittersweet. A Wildcat strike took Hawaii out of the driver’s seat and put it in the runners-up circle in UH’s only appearance at the CWS.

Chuck Crim fished on the professional bass tour after his 1987-94 MLB career. He will always remember the one that got away when he was a college freshman.

“Put it this way: It’s something I’ll never forget,” said Crim in a phone interview from his home in, of all places, Arizona. “My biggest memory is knowing we had the best team in the nation and we just didn’t win those two close games when we needed to. I really felt that is true after some time and analyzing all the clubs and what we did. We’d beaten the No. 1 team and the No. 3.”

Hawaii found itself in command at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., through no fluke. The team that went 60-18 beat Texas in the Central Regional to advance to the CWS.

Despite the legendary Derek Tatsuno having moved on after 1979, UH didn’t miss a beat with its “keiki corps” of young pitchers, including freshmen Crim, who went 15-0, and Bryan Duquette.

Hawaii beat Florida State, St. John’s and Miami at Omaha. By then, Arizona and Cal were the only two other teams left, and they each had a loss in the double-elimination tournament compared to none for UH.

But the Wildcats edged the Rainbows 6-4 in 11 innings, eliminated the Bears 10-9, and then held off UH again in the championship final, 5-3.

“At Omaha I got stuck on the same floor of the hotel with the Arizona team,” said Don Robbs, who retires after 40 years of doing Rainbows baseball radio play-by-play with the completion of this weekend’s series. “Of course the night they won it I had to get out of my room. It was party time and the wrong team was partying.”

Shortstop Eric Tokunaga, third baseman Kimo Perkins and catcher Collin Tanabe made the all-tournament team. Arizona’s Terry Francona was the MVP; he was later Crim’s teammate on the Milwaukee Brewers and won two more World Series as manager of the Boston Red Sox.

With a solid core of young players returning and master recruiter and program architect Les Murakami as manager, the ’Bows figured they’d return to Omaha, soon.

But they never have.

“With baseball, you never know,” said Howard Dashefsky, UH’s starting first baseman in 1980 and now a news anchor at KHON, Channel 2.

The year before Arizona was Hawaii’s nemesis, too. UH was 69-15 in 1979, but lost in regional play to Arizona, in Tucson.

“At one point of my freshman year we were 60-3 and ranked No. 1 in the nation,” Dashefsky said. “And my sophomore year was even better, we went to the College World Series.”

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.