In a three-quarters-of-the-season tuneup, the Hawaii baseball team is tinkering with its pitching and stabilizing the fielding for the three-game road series against Cal State Northridge.

Brendan Hornung will pitch in today’s opener as part of the Rainbow Warriors’ revised all-righty rotation. Jackson Rees pitches in place of left-handed Dominic DeMiero on Saturday. Neil Uskali starts on Sunday.

UH coach Mike Trapasso said the intent is to rest DeMiero this series. DeMiero, who averaged 3.2 innings his past three starts, has been experiencing tenderness in his pitching elbow.

“That’s just the life of a pitcher,” Trapasso said. “Some pitchers get a little tender, a little bit of a dead arm. (DeMiero is) going through that. It doesn’t look like it’s anything serious.”

Trapasso said if DeMiero feels “really good” — he might be available in a specific situation. “It would be to come in and get a left-hander out and get out of a jam,” Trapasso said.

The ’Bows are fortunate to have four quality starting pitchers, Trapasso said. Rees is 3-0 with a 2.37 ERA in six starts.

Trapasso said the same pitching guidelines apply — keep pitches down in the strike zone — especially at Matador Baseball Field, where the winds usually blow strongly toward left.

“It’s not your stadium atmosphere,” Trapasso said. “It’s a small park. It plays small. It’s bleachers rather than stadium seating. It’s always been a hard place to play for everybody.”

Trapasso is optimistic the ’Bows will regain their nonconference defensive focus. They had a .971 fielding percentage in 27 nonconference games. In nine Big West games, they are fielding at .947, worst among the nine league members.

“We’ve gotten away from our … defensive basics,” Trapasso said. “That’s on me. Hopefully, we’ll continue to focus on that.”

Freshman Dustin Demeter has committed five errors at short in six Big West games but is hitting .267 and tied for the team lead with 22 RBIs.

Trapasso said Demeter and backup shortstop Jordan LaFave will have roles against CSUN. On Sunday, LaFave turned a difficult chopper into a game-ending double play against UC Davis.

“Jordan has definitely shown the ability to come in and make the routine play, which is the most important thing,” Trapasso said. “Dustin has the ability to make the routine play and be an offensive threat. But he’s been a little more inconsistent, which is what you’d expect from a freshman on the defensive end. … Dustin is a good baseball player. He’s going to be a great player for us. He’s still going to be actively involved. We’re going to be using both of them down the stretch.”