Rainbow pitchers need to stay low to reach desired heights

This college baseball season, Hawaii’s pitchers have been at their best when they have reached their lowest points.

Coach Mike Trapasso has continually implored his pitchers to aim for the bottom of the strike zone — the cup, in baseball parlance. It is a request that has been inconsistently met in recent performances. Trapasso is hopeful his pitchers will have better command and location against UC Riverside this weekend. The three-game Big West series opens tonight at Les Murakami Stadium.

“If we settle down a little bit and start throwing the ball down in the zone, we’ll have success against anyone,” Trapasso said. “But if we pitch like we did this weekend overall, (Riverside will) score plenty of runs and we’ll be in a dog fight the whole weekend.”

The Rainbow Warriors went 4-3 on the recent 14-day road trip, winning Big West series against UC Irvine and UC Davis. But they missed earning sweeps with a blowout loss in each of those three-game series, and they used nine pitchers in a one-sided, nonconference loss to Pacific.

Jackson Rees and Neil Uskali will be UH’s starting pitchers for the first two games. Logan Pouelsen and Dominic DeMiero are considerations for Sunday’s start.

In his first two starts, Pouelsen compiled an 0.60 earned-run average and 0.47 WHIP. In the past three starts, Pouelsen has a 13.01 ERA and 2.89 WHIP.

“I haven’t been getting back to basics,” Pouelsen said.

In four innings against UC Davis, Pouelsen allowed nine hits and four earned runs. But he did not issue a walk and threw strikes on 38 of 52 pitches.

“Davis swung the bat pretty good,” Pouelsen said. “I hung a lot of fastballs.”

Trapasso said Pouelsen was a “little hit or miss” on the road trip. “He’ll be that way, a little bit inconsistent, because this is his first year pitching (in Division I),” said Trapasso, a reference to Pouelsen being used as a designated hitter/first baseman as a UH freshman in 2017 after missing his senior season of high school because of an elbow injury. “He’s a guy who needs to be more hit than miss when he’s pitching.”

DeMiero, a junior left-hander, also has had polar splits. DeMiero had a 1.89 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in his first three starts, and 9.00 ERA and 2.27 WHIP in the past four starts.

“I’ve been having trouble spotting my fastball, especially low and outside (and) down in the zone. I know in my last outing, I was able to get the ball down in the zone, and the difference was amazing.”

DeMiero was citing a 1-2-3 inning of relief against UC Davis.

“He’s the key to our weekend rotation, that’s for sure,” Trapasso said of DeMiero. “He threw really well in that one inning against Davis. You can say it’s easy to pitch when you’re down 10-3. But at the same time, the way they were swinging and he faced the heart of their order, he really pitched well. He got a weak pop-up and two weak ground balls. We need him to be the Dom of old and get going with the two-seamer and focus more on getting ground balls.”

Uskali, who is the winningest ’Bow (6-1), is determined to pitch better earlier. Against Uskali, opponents are hitting .478 the first time in the order, then .176 with no earned runs thereafter.

“It seems every outing, the first one or two innings are just a little bit of a struggle,” Uskali said. “I think the biggest thing is, maybe, (being) over-anxious the first couple innings. I’m trying to do too much instead of focusing on what we’re all about and just pounding the cup and getting ahead early, that sort of thing.”

UH, Cal State Fullerton and CSUN are each 4-2 and tied for first in the Big West.