The University of Hawaii baseball team used to take pride in playing the big boys of the Pac-10 South straight up, then pounding the likes of the Pac-10 North Beavers into road kill.
But those days are gone.
UH baseball coach Les Murakami can't look beyond his own shadow, much less past Oregon State as the two teams prepare for tonight's opener of a three-game series at Rainbow Stadium.
Nationally ranked UCLA and California combined to take five of six from Hawaii the last two weekends, most by comfortable margins, leaving the Rainbows in desperate need of a sweep.
They would seem to have one huge advantage working in their favor to do just that. Hawaii has played 10 games this season, while Oregon State practiced for the first time outdoors last night.
The problem is, the Rainbows have lost eight of 10 and looked pretty bad doing it. Pitching remains the most glaring weakness as Hawaii's team earned run average of 9.89 would suggest.
Senior right-hander Andrew McNally will start a series for the first time since the season opener with Miami. A nagging groin injury has kept him from being in top form, but he has started the only two games the Rainbows have won.
In three starts, McNally is 1-0 with an ERA of 6.16. The only other UH pitcher whose ERA is in single digits is freshman Jamie Aloy (7.17), and he's 0-3.
Murakami will start him in Sunday's finale with Robbie Robinson (0-1, 13.50) scheduled to go tomorrow afternoon.
Oregon State coach Pat Casey counters tonight with Andrew Checketts, who was 6-2 with an ERA of 3.47 last year, Chris Pine (4-3, 2.77) tomorrow and either Matt Gunderson or James Bowman on Sunday afternoon.
UH fans will remember Checketts and Pine. Both pitched at last year's Easter Tournament. Oregon State went 5-2 that week to finish third. Both of the Beavers' losses were to the Rainbows.
"This isn't a bad team," Murakami said. "They might not be like a UCLA, but they showed last year they can play. This won't be an easy series for us. No way."
The Rainbows will be without talented outfielder Darren Blakely, who watched yesterday's practice with his dislocated thumb in a cast. He will be out up to two months.
That means Neal Honma, whose right shoulder still isn't 100 percent, will play center field. Robert Medeiros will move from catcher to left field and freshman David Perreira will take over behind the plate.
"We're going to leave Medeiros out in left because he's too tired to hit when he catches," Murakami said of UH's leading hitter.
"We'll work with three different guys behind the plate (Perreira, Key Voshell and Lars Hansen), then settle on one guy when we get into WAC play."
Unlike Medeiros, Murakami hopes Perreira's hot bat doesn't fade while behind the plate. Medeiros is hitting .342 with one homer and eight RBIs.
Perreira is second on the team in hitting (.333 average in six games) and first in RBIs with 11. Hawaii is hitting only .259 as a team, but is still averaging seven runs a game.
"We've scored enough runs to be 8-2," Murakami said. "We just haven't gotten the pitching when we needed it."
Murakami has settled on Jay Spurgeon as his ace in the bullpen. The big right-hander is 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA. He likes the number nine. In seven innings, he has yielded nine runs, nine earned runs, nine hits and nine walks. He also has five strikeouts.
"He's more of a thrower than a pitcher," Murakami said. "So he can only go a couple of innings before getting tired. So, we hope he can be our closer."
Murakami said the rest of tonight's starting lineup would be Aloy at first, Daren Masanda at second, Michael Dartt at short, Sean Murphy at third and Greg Millichap in right.
Who: Hawaii vs. Oregon State
Friday: 6:45 p.m.