FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Nine UH seniors will play their final home games starting today against Utah Valley. Saying aloha are, from left, Josh Schneider, Evan Zimny, Brandon Haislet, Cameron Wheeler, Nick Rhodes, Ryan Asato, Derek DuPree, Cory Kahn and Jon Hee.

UH seniors want parting present

The Rainbows are determined to secure a regional baseball berth

Of all the things the Rainbow baseball team loses with its senior class, the "tootie dance" might be the toughest thing to replace.

"It's real spontaneous," Rhodes said. "We just put some Michael Jackson on and everyone gets a crack out of it. It's just something fun we do."

What do his teammates think about it?

"It's something unique," was the only way Josh Schneider could describe it.

Rhodes wouldn't preview the dance before yesterday's practice, but didn't discount the possibility of breaking it out during Saturday night's senior festivities if the Rainbows finish the season with a series win against Utah Valley.

Hawaii closes out the regular season with three games against the Wolverines beginning tonight.

Rhodes and Schneider will start the first two games, as Hawaii looks to finish at or above .500 and ride a wave of momentum into next week's WAC tournament.

Mid-Pacific graduate Jon Hee, one of three seniors who have been at UH at least four years, will close out a career that includes more than 200 hits in at least 180 games played.

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The Hawaii baseball team is just two years removed from playing in the NCAA regional tournament.

Three of the nine seniors playing in their final home games this weekend use that experience as a motivational tool for going back again.

"Definitely," said Derek DuPree, who, along with Jon Hee, is one of two fifth-year seniors. "That was the highlight."

DuPree, Hee and Ryan Asato were a part of the Rainbows squad that played four regional games in Corvallis, Ore., before being eliminated by eventual NCAA champion Oregon State.

But for the other six seniors, all two-year junior college transfers, they don't have the same experience to look back on.

That's why the hope for Brandon Haislet, Nick Rhodes, Josh Schneider, Cory Kahn, Cam Wheeler and Evan Zimny is that their most memorable moment as Rainbows hasn't happened.

Not until the next couple of weeks.

"I really believe that it's yet to come." Schneider said. "It's been such a fun ride, but I think we're all really looking forward to the WAC tournament."

Hawaii is 60-52 over the last two seasons and bowed out of the conference tournament last year after just three games.

The Rainbows (26-27) were all but left for dead after a 9-19 start left them 10 games below .500 and tied for last place in the WAC after two weeks.

Behind the example set forth from this senior class, Hawaii never panicked. Instead, after battling their way back, and after playing seven weeks of solid baseball, the Rainbows find themselves in a position to make a run in next week's WAC tournament as the likely third seed.

"Even when they were struggling, they never quit working and never stopped believing," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "They were fairly young and inexperienced and we're going through some struggles, but they never panicked and kept an even keel, and a lot of the credit for that has to go to the seniors."

Before the Rainbows' focus is entirely on the tournament, they will face Utah Valley in a three-game set beginning tonight.

Rhodes and Schneider will start the opening two games, with both hoping to punctuate their final appearances in Les Murakami Stadium with strong outings.

"It's always an honor to be starting at a Division I program like this," Rhodes said. "Obviously I'm going to give it all I got just like any other outing. I just want to end on a good note."

For Schneider, who has seen his number of starts cut in half from his junior to senior year, the nostalgia of playing his final home game won't hit him until he throws his final pitch.

"During the game, it's going to be easy to pretend like it's any other game," he said. "I think once the game is over, or coming out of the game, it's going to really start hitting me."

Hawaii won't have much time to celebrate senior night on Saturday. It will have to turn around the next day and catch a plane to Ruston, La., for next week's WAC tournament.

It probably works out for the better, because for all nine seniors, whether they were here two years or five, Saturday is only the beginning. What happens after that will be how they are remembered.

"The tournament obviously is going to define us as a team," Rhodes said.

"I definitely see a good moment coming up," Haislet added. "I see this team being capable of doing anything we want to do with the way we've been playing."