All four pitchers in Hawaii's projected starting rotation at the start of the year have battled some sort of injury at some point in 2010.

The hope was that it would all come together by the time conference play rolled around.

Instead, the Rainbows are the most limited they've been all season heading into the opener of a four-game Western Athletic Conference series against Fresno State (17-12) tonight at 6:35.

Senior Nate Klein (shoulder) and sophomore Matt Sisto (biceps) are both out this weekend, leaving Hawaii (16-12) with 11 available pitchers for the series.

Junior Josh Slaats (3-1, 1.03 ERA), who has been named WAC pitcher of the week after each of his last three home starts, will take the mound tonight against the four-time defending WAC tournament champions.

Zach Gallagher (3-1, 3.74) and Sam Spangler (2-3, 4.81) are expected to start tomorrow, leaving an opening for somebody to fill on Sunday.

“;I can promise you that we'll have somebody out there pitching on Sunday,”; Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “;And whoever it is, we will expect them to perform well for us.”;

Fortunately for the Rainbows, the bullpen has performed very well at times this season. Alex Capaul (4-1, 4.40) is tied for the WAC lead in wins, and would be a viable starting candidate, except for the fact that he's been typically the first reliever used out of the bullpen in key situations.

Lenny Linsky (1.40 ERA, six saves) and Jesse Moore (three saves) have come up big in late-inning situations, leaving Connor Little (0-0, 6.30 ERA) as the probable favorite if there was one at this point.

Of course, all that becomes moot if the Rainbows don't get a solid performance from Slaats, who hasn't allowed a run in his last 20 innings pitched at Les Murakami Stadium.

In five home starts, Slaats is 3-0 with a 0.30 ERA and has 35 strikeouts in 29 2/3 innings.

“;You can't have a different approach, but it's kind of a different ballgame now,”; Slaats said. “;It doesn't matter what happened in the preseason. You're starting over, basically, and we need to come out aggressive with high intensity and show (Fresno) that we are a good ballclub.”;

The Bulldogs also opened play in Hawaii in 2008, when they went on to win the College World Series. The teams split the series after Hawaii shut out the Bulldogs in the first two games.

“;They're the favorites and are a great opportunity to jump-start the (conference) season the right way,”; Slaats said. “;We just want to win that first one and then go from there.”;

The Rainbows needed to split a series at Fresno last year to qualify for the WAC tournament and did so, winning the last two games by scoring a combined 30 runs.

“;The easiest way to cure question marks with pitchers to injury ... is just to go out and score a bunch of runs,”; Trapasso said. “;We need to do a better job of swinging the bats than we did last week.”;

Hawaii enters league play last in the WAC in batting average (.266) and sixth in runs scored (159), but leads the league in team ERA (4.50) and fewest home runs allowed (13).

Fresno State is third in batting average (.319) and second in home runs (33) and team ERA (5.34).