There are several approaches to playing a road series against the Big West leader with a powerful lineup, efficient pitchers and a head coach who is an enigmatologist in solving nearly every baseball puzzle.
Hawaii coach Rich Hill, whose Rainbow Warriors open a three-game road series against first-place Cal Poly today, prefers the business-as-usual tactic.
“We try to be that even keel,” Hill said. “Control what we can control, and that’s being extremely prepared on game day. It really doesn’t matter what it says across (the Mustangs’) chest or on their hat. It’s about us and our preparation and what we need to do in a strategy-and-scouting report to be successful.”
Hill is going with the usual all-right-handed starting rotation of Itsuki Takemoto (2.2 walks and 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings), Liam O’Brien (nation’s best 3.3 hits per nine innings), and Cooper Walls (2.70 ERA). Takemoto and O’Brien did not complete four innings against Long Beach State last weekend, and errors contributed to Walls’ allowing three runs, all unearned, in 42⁄3 innings.
But the self-styled “Tropical Swarm” strategy of using several pitchers has helped the ’Bows hold opponents to an average of 1.3 runs in the seventh through ninth innings. UH relievers are a combined 17-2 with a 3.39 ERA while averaging 2.8 walks and 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
“I really think the strength of our pitching staff is really in the ‘Tropical Swarm’ mentality,” Hill said. “Guys have really stepped up and gone one time through the lineup with a really good focus.”
The Mustangs, who are 23-8 overall and 12-0 in the Big West, will be without first baseman Zach Daudet (.410/.546/.699), who missed the past four games because of an infection. “He’s going to miss at least the next three weeks,” Cal Poly coach Larry Lee said.
But freshman Jake Downing, who had not played first base until replacing Daudet last Friday, is hitting .405 in 16 games.
After hitting .143 in 11 games for Long Beach State last year, catcher Jack Collins has made a significant improvement since transferring to Cal Poly in August. Collins has 10 home runs and 41 RBIs while starting all 31 games.
“He’s our most important player on the field,” Lee said. “That’s the one player we can’t afford to lose. He’s done a great job on both sides of the ball. Our pitching coach (Seth Moir) calls the pitches, but (Collins) gives confidence to the pitchers when they throw to him. We need to keep him healthy. He plays every game, even midweek games.”
Left-handed starting pitcher Griffin Naess moved into the Friday spot after being named the Big West’s 2004 Freshman Pitcher of the Year. “There is pressure going from a Sunday (starter) to Friday,” Lee said of Naess, who is 3-2 with a 4.50 ERA in eight starts this year. “I think at this point, it’s more about mechanics and getting things squared away more so than the perceived pressure of pitching on a Friday night.”
Jake Torres and Tanner Sagouspe, usually appearing in that order, are the late-inning pitchers for the Mustangs. “Sometimes we try to ride out Torres to save Sagouspe the next game or two,” Lee said, referencing Torres pitching more than one inning in nine of 13 appearances.
Relief pitcher Chris Downs has surprised with a 1.52 ERA and four walks in 29 2/3 innings. “He’s made the biggest jump of all our pitchers,” Lee said. “It came in early February (of training) when his mechanics tightened up. He’s been our best arm out of the bullpen.”
Hill said: “They can beat you with pitching, hitting, power, speed and defense. It’s everything, and then you add Larry Lee into the equation, and that’s worth 10 wins per season. That guy is the best coach in the conference.
“The player-development thing with Larry is off the charts,” Hill added. “Look at the guy from Long Beach (Collins). This guy hits under .200 and now all of a sudden he’s the best hitter in the world. They start two freshmen — (left fielder Dante) Vachini and (shortstop Nate) Castellon —who are really going off. It goes on and on. Once you go down that rabbit hole, it can be depressing. So I don’t do it.”
