Add another “first” for University of Hawaii pitcher Logan Pouelsen.
A day after achieving the first shutout and complete game of his baseball life, Pouelsen was named the Big West Conference’s pitcher of the week.
Pouelsen pitched a four-hitter to beat Loyola Marymount in Sunday’s matinee at Les Murakami Stadium. Although he admittedly threw shutouts in video games, “nothing’s like this,” Pouelsen said after improving to 2-0. “Playing in paradise with a group of brothers and great coaches, nothing beats this.”
Pouelsen said he woke up Sunday morning feeling hopeful. “I’m going to go out there and throw as many innings as I can, and hope for the best,” Pouelsen recalled thinking.
He said he attended a chapel service, ate a turkey-bacon sandwich and then brought a four-pitch repertoire of fastballs, change-ups, curves and sliders.
“Everything worked,” Pouelsen said.
Pouelsen’s performance created a pleasant dilemma for head coach Mike Trapasso. The four UH starters — Jackson Rees, Dominic DeMiero, Neil Uskali and Pouelsen — allowed only one earned run in 301⁄3 innings against Loyola Marymount this weekend. The ’Bows are ranked fifth nationally with a 1.74 earned-run average. But this week’s road series against Louisiana State is scheduled for three games.
Trapasso has not finalized a rotation, but he is leaning toward the same order of Rees, DeMiero and Uskali.
“Obviously, Logan deserves a start for one of those three games, as well as Neil,” Trapasso said. “I feel comfortable with either one. But between Logan and Neil, I think Logan might give us a shot coming out of the bullpen. No question, this (past) weekend we struggled a little bit with that bridge guy, that set-up guy, from the starter to (closer) Dylan Thomas. I’m considering using Logan in that role this coming weekend. He could be a little shot in the arm for us.”
Trapasso said it was equally difficult to pare down the travel roster to 27 players for this nonconference series. The Big West, of which UH is a member, limits visiting teams to 27 players.
“It’s kind of a dress rehearsal for when we start playing conference road games,” Trapasso said.
The ’Bows will travel with 12 pitchers, including four left-handed relievers. Catcher Kekai Rios, who has missed the past six games because of a hamstring injury, is on the travel roster.
On forming the travel roster, Trapasso said, it is “not an easy and not a fun thing to leave a couple of guys home, who, frankly, deserve to be with us. That’s one of the tough things you have to do. The 27 we’re taking, that doesn’t mean that’s the 27 we’re taking on our next trip to UC Irvine in a few weeks. We’ll have to wait and see.”
