It was the bottom of the first inning and Arizona State was threatening to score again when Hawaii pitcher Aaron Davenport decided to slow it down.

“He threw a 3-2 changeup for a strikeout to end the inning,” UH baseball coach Mike Trapasso said of the season-opening road game. “That really set the tone for him to settle down. He has a very good changeup.”

Similar to the roll shot in volleyball and floater in basketball, the changeup freezes batters expecting heat. Trapasso, who doubles as the Rainbow Warriors’ pitching coach, has helped his staff develop the companion pitch to the fastball.

“It’s something I learned right away my first year as a pitching coach,” Trapasso said. “I knew that I wanted to always have a staff where every guy could commit to the changeup and be able to throw it. I think it’s the second-best pitch in baseball.”

Trapasso said he learned the intricacies of the changeup from several coaches, most notably Tom Holliday and Brent Kemintz. The ideal changeup is thrown with the same motion and arm speed as a fastball, only the velocity is slower by eight to 12 mph.

“You find the grip you feel is comfortable and you commit to it, and then you work on different aspects of how you throw it,” Trapasso said.

Trapasso said it is important to keep it simple.

“Throw it just like your fastball,” Trapasso said. “The problem is too many guys want to manipulate it, and those are the guys who struggle with the changeup. Some guys can’t master it in their mind, so they try to manipulate it and turn it over and do things that are just unnecessary.”

Mastery of the changeup boosted Davenport and Cade Halemanu to the front of the pitching rotation. Davenport will pitch in Thursday’s opener of a four-game series against Hawaii Pacific. Halemanu will start on Friday. Trapasso has not decided on starters for the Saturday and Sunday games.

As a freshman in 2019, Davenport mixed a fastball with a 3,000-spin-rate curveball. “His curveball is elite,” Trapasso said, “but there were days when the curve was not a strike.When that would happen, he became just a one-pitch pitcher. As a freshman, he’d have a good outing and a not-so-good outing. He was inconsistent.”

In the fall ahead of the 2020 season, Davenport developed a changeup. Last season, Trapasso noted, “he was throwing (the changeup) at any count, which made him really effective. That took him over the top and made him an elite Friday guy. That changeup makes him go.”

Halemanu, a junior, had wowed scouts when he was a Pearl City High pitcher. Not only was the 6-foot-5 Halemanu’s fastball touching 88 mph at the time, but he also had batters flailing at a snailish changeup. This year, Halemanu’s fastball touches 91 mph, with a changeup that clocks in the low 70s.

“Cade’s changeup is 100% Cade,” Trapasso said. “He had that coming in. We’ve done very little with Cade’s changeup because it’s as good a changeup as I’ve seen at the college level. He’s just gifted to have that. His is a special changeup because he’s able to throw it out of fastball rhythm. You normally want your changeup to be eight to 12 miles off your fastball. Cade’s arm speed is the same, but his changeup will come in, at times, even 15 to 17 miles per hour off his fastball. That’s just nearly impossible.”