For the Hawaii baseball team, there is no disguising the value of the players behind the masks.

While it is significant for a team to have one good catcher, the ’Bows have three — Kekai Rios, Chayce Ka‘aua and Tyler Murray.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to throw Dave Noworyta out there on any given day,” coach Mike Trapasso said of the ’Bows’ fourth-string catcher. “He’s solid.”

The past weekend, the ’Bows used a three-catcher lineup. Rios played third base in place of injured Ethan Lopez, Ka‘aua was the designated hitter, and Murray was behind the plate. For the road trip to Louisiana State, UH had four catchers on the 27-player travel roster.

“You can’t fake catchers,” Trapasso said. “That’s not one of those positions that you can just throw anybody out there. You’ve got to have a guy who’s good defensively. You have to recruit catchers.”

Rios, a junior, is a highly regarded prospect who is expected to be selected in this year’s major league draft. Ka‘aua, who is hitting .302, was named the Big West’s field player of the week on Monday. Murray has a .367 on-base percentage, and struck out once in 24 at-bats. But those three are in the playing rotation because of their defensive skills.

“The things we focus on with our catchers, in order, are receiving, blocking, throwing, hitting,” Trapasso said. “A lot of kids come out of high school and they have that turned upside down. They focus on, ‘oh, I want to hit,’ and then, ‘I want to show off my arm,’ then ‘I want to show off my toughness by blocking,’ then ‘I’ll go ahead and work on my receiving.’ To have a good pitching staff, you have to have good receivers.”

The UH catchers have mastered the art of “framing,” receiving favorable calls for on-the-edge pitches.

“Bad receivers can take strikes away from you, whereas a good receiver will get strikes for you on what may be borderline pitches,” Trapasso said.

Catching might be the sport’s most taxing position. “We were joking: Why do we play catcher?” Rios said. “Catcher is so hard on your body. But it’s good. Anything to help the team.”

Rios switched to catching after being a left-side infielder as a Kamehameha Schools underclassman.

Murray, a second-generation catcher, was 5 when he was given his first mitt. “It didn’t take a while,” Murray said of the breaking-in period. “It was one of those Walmart gloves. Now, it will take a while, maybe six months, to break in a good one.”

Ka‘aua has his own glove story.

“I have Old Faithful,” Ka‘aua said of his catcher’s mitt. “I’ve had mine for three years, and she’s still going. I had her re-laced (Tuesday) night. From my freshman year, she’s been treating me good. She’ll be with me a little longer.”

Trapasso said Noworyta is the most unheralded of the group. Noworyta warms up the relievers.

“Maybe the hardest-working guy on our team is Dave Noworyta because he’s catching all day in our bullpen,” Trapasso said. “It’s a thankless job he does really, really well.”