Nearly two weeks from the start of the 2019 season, Hawaii baseball coach Mike Trapasso said he is not concerned about poll positions.
“I don’t give it a single thought,” said Trapasso, whose Rainbow Warriors are predicted to finish sixth in the Big West in polling of the league’s nine head coaches.
“Every year we’ve been in the league, we’re always down around there,” Trapasso said. “We’ve never finished where we’ve been picked, so I guess that’s good we weren’t picked first.”
Cal State Fullerton, the 2018 Big West champion, was picked to finish first. The Titans received three first-place votes and 70 points.
UC Irvine, which received four No. 1 votes, placed second with 67 points. Long Beach State was third (62 points), followed by Cal Poly (60) and UC Santa Barbara (39). UH earned 32 points.
This is the ’Bows’ seventh year of Big West membership after moving from the Western Athletic Conference.
The ’Bows return their top pitcher (Dylan Thomas), both left-side infielders (third baseman Ethan Lopez and shortstop Maaki Yamazaki) and their best outfielder (Adam Fogel).
“I like our guys,” Trapasso said. “We have certain areas where we’re doing well, and certain areas where we need those 2½ weeks to shore up and get better. We still have work to do. It’s a work in progress all the way up to conference play.”
The ’Bows play an alumni team in a Feb. 9 exhibition at Les Murakami Stadium. The ’Bows open the regular season against Portland in a four-game series that begins Feb. 15.
Trapasso already announced that Thomas would be the opening-night pitcher. Thomas, a fourth-year junior, led the Big West with 14 saves in 2018. He turned down an offer from the Minnesota Twins to return to UH.
Trapasso said freshman Aaron Davenport would start one of the games in the Portland series. Trapasso said the other two starting spots are still being contended.
BIG WEST PRESEASON BASEBALL POLL
(First-place votes in parentheses)
1. Cal State Fullerton (3) 70 points
2. UC Irvine (4) 67
3. Long Beach State (1) 62
4. Cal Poly (1) 60
5. UC Santa Barbara 49
6. Hawaii 32
7. Cal State Northridge 29
8. UC Davis 19
9. UC Riverside 17
