A couple of weeks ago, there wasn't much reason to think this Hawaii Pacific baseball season wouldn't end like the past 16 ... at home, with no ticket to the regionals, no attainment of the annual team goal.

But then the Sea Warriors reeled off nine wins to close out with a 37-10 record and a second league title in three years. Could this finally be their time? Might HPU make its first NCAA tournament appearance?

“;The team did its homework, it knew it had to punch out nine straight wins,”; coach Garett Yukumoto said. “;I explained to them that would just give them an opportunity. They did their part, now they had to leave it in the hands of the people who decide.”;

The PacWest Conference doesn't get an automatic entry to the NCAA Division II baseball tournament. But a Hawaii D-II team finally got the call; HPU's at-large bid is a first for the conference.

The Sea Warriors left last night to play top-seeded UC San Diego tomorrow in their first game of a four-team double-elimination tournament. Winner goes to the Division II College World Series.

“;It's historic,”; PacWest commissioner Bob Hogue said.

YUKUMOTO KNOWS it's not about him, even though some would say it really is—as well as every other baseball player who has donned the light blue of HPU. He played outfield for the Sea Warriors in 1993, the last time they went to the mainland for a postseason game. Yukumoto, future big-leaguer Benny Agbayani and their teammates were in the NAIA then. They were quickly eliminated by powerhouse Lewis Clark State.

“;It was one-and-done,”; Yukumoto said.

Local baseball fans remember Yukumoto as a small but fast and feisty competitor, the kind of guy figuring out how to steal third before he'd even gotten to second—and usually making it all the way home in the bargain. The guy you hate playing against but love as a teammate.

Now he's 39, husband and father of two, vice principal at Wahiawa Community School by day. In the afternoons, he transfers his energetic and tough-minded style to this generation of Sea Warriors.

“;They're tenacious, a group of people who never give up,”; he said.

It includes left fielder Blake Amaral, an RBI machine from the Big Island who knocked in a school-record 51 runs this year and 10 in one game last season. There's infielder Lester “;Braddah”; Akeo, son and grandson of assistant coaches Lester “;L.A.”; Akeo and Lester “;Pops”; Akeo. Bas Nooij (pronounced “;Boss Noe”;), a catcher from the Netherlands, ended up at desks in downtown Honolulu and behind the plate at Hans L'Orange Park because his junior college coach, Kelly Smith, was Yukumoto's at Portland State before he transferred to HPU.

“;It's a dream, coming here to go to college and play baseball,”; Nooij said. “;Making it to regionals was our goal all season. We knew we had to win all six against Hilo. When we did that, we gained confidence. We just played our game. We're a team that competes and plays to the end, no matter what.”;

Nooij is among 10 HPU seniors. Yukumoto hopes the Sea Warriors' lack of postseason experience is negated by the overall muscle memory of hundreds of college games, thousands of innings.

“;I told them they'll be nervous at first, and that's fine. I want them to remember we're there to enjoy the experience and see where it leads us.”;