To avoid another Freaky Friday, the University of Hawaii baseball team is switching its pitching rotation for this weekend’s road series against UC San Diego.

UH coach Rich Hill announced Blaze Koali‘i Pontes will make his first Friday start of the season. The Rainbow Warriors are 3-9 on Fridays and 4-9 in series openers. Last month, Pontes pitched in the Thursday opener against Cal State Bakersfield in a three-game series that was pushed up a day because of Easter.

“He’s our best guy,” Hill said of Pontes. “He’s our ace.”

In the past 10 appearances, Pontes has a 1.38 ERA. In five starts, Pontes has a 1.43 ERA and 0.98 WHIP while averaging 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings. As a starter, Pontes has walked three in 312⁄3 innings.

“I’m from that old school of put yourself in the best position to win game by game,” Hill said, “and our best position to win is with Blaze on Friday night.”

Two weeks ago, Hill considered having Pontes, who usually pitches on Saturday, and Friday pitcher Cade Halemanu switch rotation spots. But Hill kept the Halemanu-Pontes order to maintain ample rest for last week’s adjusted schedule. Because of UH’s graduation ceremony on Saturday, last week’s UH-CSUN series was played on Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

“There’s a school of thought to pitch your best guy on Saturday,” Hill said. “We’ve won six straight (three-game) series doing it that way. But, again, it’s kind of a tough way to live your life, you know, to lose the first game and win the next two.”

Hill said he has not decided on a starter for the other two games of the series. He indicated Halemanu will be available as a reliever on Friday. Hill has maintained Halemanu, who mixes a change-up with a fastball that touches 97 mph, projects as a next-level reliever.

“His stuff really has an opportunity to play up when we slot him in the right spot,” Hill said of Halemanu. “He could very easily find himself starting Saturday or Sunday depending on how Friday goes.”

Hill has expressed confidence in Pontes, who has found serenity with collaborative strategic sessions with pitching coach Mathew Troupe and lively bullpen sessions between starts. Hill equated that calmness to vacationing on Maui. “It’s like the third day, ‘Yeah, here we are,’” Hill said.

But on the mound, Hill emphasized, “it’s like he’s a killer. At the same time, he’s got this confidence that he can throw the ball anywhere he wants to in the low 90s with good spin rate.”

Pontes throws a change-up that breaks away from left-handed hitters and a slider that breaks away from everybody. He said he learned the basics of the slider from Dylan Thomas, a former UH closer.

Describing Pontes’ slider, catcher Nainoa Cardinez said: “really firm, really tight, big break, and a lot of batters swinging over it.”

Asked what he thought awaited a hitter facing the slider, Cardinez said, “They’re in a world of trouble.”