While Rainbows head coach Les Murakami's eyes would light up every time he described the potential of Randall Benge and Sean Harvey, Bergman was just some spindly kid from Carson City, Nev., who had as much of a chance playing every day as a position player as he did making the regular three-man rotation.
But after Benge and Harvey went down with arm injuries that eventually required season-ending surgeries, and Andrew McNally's leg ailments persisted, Murakami turned to the lanky 6-foot-4 lefty and told him to hit the hill.
It hasn't always been pretty for Bergman, who at one point lost 25 pounds in a matter of weeks. But yesterday at blustery Lobo Field he led the Rainbows to their first Western Athletic Conference victory of the season in nine tries.
The 16-8 win over the Lobos snapped a team record nine-game losing streak for the Rainbows. They are now 1-8 in West Division play and 6-22 overall. New Mexico fell to 11-12 for the season and 3-6 in South Division action.
"We just had good pitching," Murakami explained of the much-needed victory. "Dusty kept us in the game. He pitched fantastic. His fastball was in the upper 80s.
"He kept the ball down in the strike zone. He pitched really well. This is what we expected of our freshman and Dusty wasn't even the top guy."
At this dim hour, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more valuable player. After UH pitchers surrendered an astounding 44 runs in two games, Bergman limited New Mexico to four earned runs in seven innings of work.
The win raised his record to 1-3, while lowering his earned run average to 5.93. He had four walks and seven strikeouts before giving way to reliever Jamie Aloy.
The fellow freshman struggled, giving up four runs in two innings, but it wasn't enough to cost Hawaii its first win since beating UH-Hilo on Feb. 22.
What makes the win even sweeter for Murakami is the health of his team is as poor as patients in a M*A*S*H unit, but the Rainbows still came to play.
"It is like an infirmary around here," Murakami said. "Robert Medeiros can't move from side-to-side with that bad ankle, but he gutted it up to catch for us and did a really great job.
"David Perreira injured his thumb on Saturday, so he couldn't catch, but was still able to play first. Sean Murphy got hit and has a big welt on his leg.
"The whole team is hobbing around, but they came together at a tough time to get a big win for us. It was a team thing."
While Bergman blanked the Lobos through the first five innings, the Rainbows built a 9-0 advantage. Medeiros and Greg Millichap carried the biggest sticks.
Millichap went 4-for-6 with three RBIs. He also hit his fourth home run of the year. Medeiros added three hits and three RBIs. Two of the hits were doubles.
In fact, Hawaii set a team record for doubles in an inning with four and doubles in a game with nine.
"We scored 49 runs this weekend and won only one game," Murakami said. "That says something. If we can get everybody healthy, this is going to be a good team because we can hit.
"We raised our batting more than 20 points this weekend. They just needed a win to get some confidence back."
The victory couldn't have come at a better time because Hawaii begins a particularly difficult phase of its schedule. The Rainbows not only play host to the Bulldogs of Fresno State this weekend, but follow that up with the week-long Rainbow Easter Baseball Tournament against the likes of Wichita State, Cal State-Northridge and Nebraska.
Hawaii New Mexico ab r h bi ab r h bi Nakano lf 5 0 1 0 Young 2b 5 1 1 0 Blakeley cf 1 0 0 0 Gonzalez rf 5 1 2 0 Honma cf/lf 5 2 3 3 Alevras c 3 3 3 5 Millichap rf 6 3 4 3 Moulton 1b 5 1 2 0 Medeiros c 6 2 3 3 Hix lf 5 1 2 2 Perreira 1b 4 2 1 0 Yamaguchi ss 4 0 1 0 Murphy 3b 5 1 3 2 Kerschen dh 4 0 1 0 Masanda 2b 6 2 4 2 Carter 3b 3 0 1 0 Voshell dh 4 1 2 1 Montiel cf 2 1 0 0 Konishi dh 2 1 1 1 Dartt ss 6 2 3 2 Totals 50 16 25 16 Totals 36 8 13 8 Hawaii 005 013 070--16 New Mexico 000 002 042-- 8E--Bergman, Yamaguchi. DP--Hawaii 4 (Murphy-Masanda, Dartt-Perreira-Murphy, Murphy-Masanda-Perreira, Dartt-Masanda-Perreira). LOB--Hawaii 11, New Mexico 6.
2B--Nakano, Honma, Millichap 2, Medeiros 2, Murphy, Masanda, Konishi, Gonzalez, Alevras, Moulton, Hix, Yamaguchi. HR--Millichap (4), Alevras 2 (4).
IP H R ER BB SO Bergman (W,1-3) 7 8 4 4 4 7 Aloy 2 5 4 4 1 0 Ortiz (L,0-4) 3-1/3 8 5 5 2 1 Anderson 2-1/3 8 4 4 0 1 Messer 1-1/3 5 4 4 0 0 Waites 2 4 3 2 0 3Messer pitched to four batters in the eighth; Bergman pitched to two batters in the eighth.
WP--Bergman, Anderson. BK--Ortiz. HBP--Perreira (by Ortiz). Perreira (by Waites).
T--3:44. A--263.
Umpires--Riggers (plate), Snader (first), Williamson (third).