If it worked once, why not try it again?

The last time the Hawaii baseball team went more than a week without a game in the month of May, its season ended in Corvallis, Ore., in an NCAA regional.

Four years later, an at-large berth might be out of the question, but a Western Athletic Conference tournament title is still up for grabs as the Rainbows return to the field for the first time in 11 days tomorrow night for the opener of a four-game series against New Mexico State at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Rainbows (23-22, 6-10) sit in a tie for fifth place with San Jose State and are a game ahead of last-place Sacramento State, which was swept over the weekend by Louisiana Tech.

Hawaii's last game was an 8-7 loss in 12 innings to Nevada on May 2 in which a win would have put it in third place. UH started the bye week tied for last, but crept even with the Spartans and ahead of the Hornets without playing a game.

“;It's a crazy conference. People are beating up on each other and there's a lot of parity,”; junior shortstop Greg Garcia said. “;We know we control our destiny and if we put up wins, we'll get to the conference tournament and we know we can do well in the conference tournament.”;

The Aggies are a perfect example of how so much can change in one series. New Mexico State (35-16-1, 13-6-1) started last week ranked No. 25 by Collegiate Baseball and in command to win the regular-season WAC title.

Seven days later, the Aggies are percentage points behind Fresno State, which swept New Mexico State in its own ballpark, for the top spot in the WAC. This is the Aggies' final WAC series as they finish with two road games at Southern California before the WAC tournament in Mesa, Ariz.

“;They lead the nation in almost every major offensive category, but what really gets them going is the walks,”; Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. “;They're not going to expand, they're not going to chase and will be very patient, so it starts with throwing strike one and making sure to pitch ahead in the count.”;

Through Sunday, the Aggies rank first nationally in runs (567), hits (694), home runs (100), slugging percentage (.601) and walks (346).

Hawaii is 12th in the country in walks allowed per nine innings and has a team ERA (4.95) that is nearly three runs a game better than New Mexico State (7.70), which is last in the WAC.

Still, the Rainbows know it will be next to impossible to completely shut down the Aggies, and will have to improve on their .272 batting average that is in the bottom 20 in the country.

“;We like to play in our big park and use our pitching and defense to win ballgames,”; Garcia said. “;We're going to need some timely hitting and if we can do all that we should win some ballgames.”;

The Rainbows went an entire week without a game, something Hawaii hasn't done in May since 2006, when it took nine days off following a road trip in Louisiana.

Hawaii closed that year with a sweep at San Jose State, the same place UH finishes its regular season next week, and was 8-5 after the break, including 2-2 at the NCAA regional in Oregon.

After back-to-back shaky performances against Utah Valley during league bye weeks the last two seasons, Trapasso decided to follow what coach Mike Batesole does at Fresno State and give his guys the whole week off from a real game.

“;I just felt it'd be a good idea to take a page out of what Mike did with Fresno, where he said two-thirds of the way through it made a big difference for his team to get their legs under them,”; Trapasso said earlier this year. “;The reality is we laid an egg against (Utah Valley) the last two years because we were out of gas or we weren't there mentally so I decided let's give these kids a break.”;

Hawaii tentatively has Josh Slaats (4-3, 2.63), Sam Spangler (2-6, 4.85), Matt Sisto (4-4, 6.56) and Connor Little (2-0, 5.79) penciled in as the starters for this week's series.

Trapasso also said yesterday that senior Nate Klein would make the road trip next week in hopes of playing in the WAC tournament and didn't rule out Christian Johnson's chances at playing in it as well.