For this season’s only preconference road trip, the University of Hawaii baseball team took 27 players, a run-thrifty pitching staff, and pretty-please wishes for a struggling offense.
The Rainbow Warriors were scheduled to depart Monday night for an ambitious week in Minnesota. The ’Bows will play Minnesota twice — in a standalone game on Thursday and in the second round of the Dairy Queen Classic on Saturday. Minnesota was the 2016 Big Ten champion. Oral Roberts, which swept Alabama this past weekend, and Iowa, which was host to an NCAA regional two years ago, are the other tournament teams.
“It’s going to be a great trip,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said.
There is no travel-roster limit for nonconference games. But partially for economic reasons, UH brought 27 players, the Big West limit.
The UH travel squad includes three players who did not play in Sunday’s game against San Francisco because of ailments. Outfielders Marcus Doi and Adam Fogel are recovering from hamstring issues. First baseman Eric Ramirez experienced a swollen left knee when he slid into a padded wall while trying to catch a foul popup on Saturday. An MRI on Ramirez’s knee did not show any structural damage.
“The decision we’ll have to make is how long it’ll take,” Trapasso said of Ramirez’s recovery. “Can he play through the pain? Or is it one of those deals where if he had a couple weeks off, he’d be fine? If he continues to play on it does it become a nagging injury for a longer period of time? We don’t have the answers to that. We’re going to play it by ear.”
Ramirez is hitting .250, tied for the highest among the regular starters, for an offense that is a collective .202 with no home runs in seven games.
“I’m always concerned when you’re two weeks in and you haven’t swung as well as you’re capable of,” Trapasso said. “But I’m still confident and optimistic we’ll swing better. We haven’t yet. We need to.”
The starting pitching has carried the ’Bows. As starters, Brendan Hornung, Dominic DeMiero, Neil Uskali and Jackson Rees have a combined 1.65 earned-run average. They average 6.4 strikeouts per nine innings — Hornung struck out 15 in 15 innings — with a WHIP of 0.96.
The ’Bows traveled with 13 pitchers, including Logan Pouelsen, who started at first Sunday but has not pitched this season. Pouelsen is nearly a year removed from Tommy John surgery on his right (throwing) elbow. Pouelsen said he is fully healed and “hopefully I’ll get on the mound.”
