Mother Nature might be an influencer in the baseball series between Hawaii and Cal State Northridge.

On a calm day, Matador Field in Northridge, Calif., is considered to be a hitter-friendly stadium. When the winds accelerate, it becomes the Ko Olina golf course in the afternoon. Fly balls become doubles, doubles become home runs, homers become comets.

“On the days when the winds are blowing out, it’s a tough place to pitch, and a lot of runs are scored,” said UH coach Mike Trapasso, whose Rainbow Warriors face the Matadors in today’s road opener of a four-game series. “It’s the wind. When the wind’s not blowing, it plays pretty normal. Northridge’s field is pretty famous in college baseball for days when the wind is just gusting straight out and you’re playing a lot of 14-13 games. We’ll have to see what it’s like.”

This Big West season, CSUN’s games average 14.8 runs at Matador Field and 11.9 on the road. There have been 22 home runs in 16 games at Matador Field this year.

“You’re in a situation where you’re really sticking to our plan even more so,” Trapasso said. “That’s where a lot of guys get outside themselves when they’re on the mound, and maybe make a pitch that gets hit for a double or a home run in this park where it might have been an out or a double at our place. And then they try to hide the ball and nibble, and that’s when things exacerbate and you get beat.”

Trapasso said the goal is to minimize “freebies” — walks, hit batsmen, errors — “and make sure if anybody hits a home run, it’s a solo home run. At the end of most games, you’re not beaten by solo home runs, you’re beaten by the two walks followed by the home run.”

The ’Bows will receive a boost with left-hander Austin Teixeira’s return to the starting rotation for the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Teixeira has not pitched in three weeks after suffering discomfort in his left triceps. Teixeira has pitched well in several simulated situations.

“He’s ready,” Trapasso said. “It’s good to have Tex back in the fold and healthy. I think the timing is good. … The idea of having an extra arm and just having Tex available and fresh makes you feel you’re getting a little more firepower.”

Teixeira’s return frees Li‘i Pontes to become the quick-attack reliever. In his past four outings, including three as a starter, Pontes has been dominant against the first nine batters he faced each game, holding them to a collective .147 average with no walks and 14 strikeouts. “He’s so effective for two or three innings,” Trapasso said. “When he gets extended a little bit longer than that, his numbers aren’t as good.”

Trapasso said he expects right-handed pitchers Cade Halemanu and Logan Pouelsen to maintain their recent success. The past two starts, Halemanu has a 1.72 ERA and 0.77 WHIP while averaging 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings. In two starts since returning to the rotation, Pouelsen has compiled a 1.80 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. He has not issued a walk.

“We’ve seen the Logan we’ve known and loved the last two starts,” Trapasso said. “We need to keep that Logan with us for another three weeks.”

Center fielder Adam Fogel recently has been on a roll. In eight games, he is 19-for-35 (.543). Early in the season, Fogel was upper-cutting his way into frequent flyouts. He said he eliminated exterior expectations, and returned to trying to “simplify things and get basehits and not try to do too much.”

That approach was validated after Fogel watched an interview with Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta, who broke out of slump by being on time with contact and hitting line drives.

“It was really that simple, but it’s not really at the same time,” Fogel said. “The mentality of trying to keep it simple goes a long way.”