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Rainbows make a statement
with 3 wins over the Seminoles

IN the end, it was the celebration that was the stunner. There wasn't much of one from the Rainbows yesterday, not really. Polite applause, jogging out to meet their triumphant teammates. Civilized high fives. Business. All business.

You would wonder if these guys even realized what they had just done.

But no, Hawaii baseball coach Mike Trapasso said. They knew.

"I did something I don't like doing," he said.

He'd told them how big these particular games were. He'd told them what beating this opponent would mean.

He'd told them all about No. 3 Florida State.

And the Rainbows responded.

Hawaii swept.

UH just beat a team that's going to Omaha, all three games. And it doesn't get any better than that.

"It was a statement series for us," Trapasso said. "A statement series. That's how we approached it coming in."

And that's what they made. A statement, three exclamation points.

Yesterday, a 9-6 win over one of the country's elite-elite-ELITE programs, all Seminole hopes ended by Derek Dupree's running catch.

Three-oh against Florida State.

Wow.

"We're really playing good baseball," UH second baseman Isaac Omura would say. "It really felt like that."

It was Omura who led off the inning that cracked it all open yesterday, Hawaii's seven-run fourth. It was Omura who doubled, then went around and scored.

The first of seven runs. The first of seven hits. The first of three doubles. All of it topped off by Jose Castaneda's grand (this means 4 RBIs, boys and girls) slam.

Everyone in the stadium stood up.

The whole place ohhhhed.

"We're just swinging how we know we can swing," Omura would say.

Yes, something's different now. Hawaii has snapped out of its early-season blues.

Something is very different now.

Florida State is a program with a summer residence at Rosenblatt Stadium. In June its address is Bob Gibson Boulevard. These guys aren't just regulars in Omaha; in the last election Mike Martin was third in the race for mayor.

Maybe we're not grasping this.

"No," Trapasso said, thinking about it. "This was ... this was big for us."

The rain, the gray, the delay kept the crowd down. But those who were there, they knew.

Once, we can see. You can get lucky, in baseball. But it's something special to sweep a team like this. Yesterday, there was the Big Inning. And more.

Bloopers that fell in. Opponent's mistakes that were pounced on. "Rainbow hits" that kept FSU at bay.

And pitching. Yesterday there was a starter (Justin Costi) who got in trouble early, then settled down with a couple of 1-2-3 innings that kept Hawaii in the game.

A reliever (Guy McDowell) who came up with the punchout that saved the day.

"Guy comes in and gets the big out," Trapasso said.

A closer (Darrell Fisherbaugh) who brought it home.

The pitchers weren't perfect. But they gave Hawaii what it needed before Trapasso went to the hook.

You can't accuse Trapasso of being indecisive, of leaving someone in too long. Not lately. He went to the mound with his hand out like me on payday.

Hawaii has a standout player (Matt Inouye) whose at-bat theme song is "Kung Fu Fighting."

Yes, I think I like this team.

The test, of course, as Trapasso was quick to point out, is to make these thunderous statements every day. Of course, doing it three days straight, against a program as good as any in the country, isn't bad.

They were befuddled, before. Somehow those key hits evaded them.

But there's confidence now.

They can play with anybody now.

This series says that.