HONOLULU — When it comes to nonconference play, Rich Hill wants to bring the party to the Les. Consistently.
If Hill had his way, the Hawaii baseball team would never leave the Islands until Big West play begins. He succeeded in that for the 2024 season, which begins at 6:35 p.m. Friday against Ole Miss of the powerhouse SEC in the first of a four-game series at Les Murakami Stadium.
“It’s just such a special place to play,” the third-year UH coach said this week. “It’s hard for teams to come in here and really succeed.”
The farthest UH will go until its Big West opener is to Hawaii Hilo’s Wong Stadium for a solo game on Feb. 28. It has 36 home games among 53 on the schedule.
The challenge for the Rainbow Warriors should be considerable, anyway. Ole Miss, a first-time opponent, is only two seasons removed from a College World Series championship, while next weekend’s opponent, NC State, is ranked No. 13 by D1Baseball.com. Home series against Holy Cross and Rice follow.
Next season, visiting opponents will include Wichita State, Washington and Oregon State. And the 2026 season will open here with Missouri, Hill said.
“It provides a great gauge for where we are, recruiting wise … and playing wise,” Hill said of bringing in elite teams. “Bottom line is, it’s just more fun to play against these guys.”
The 2024 season is the last for the Big West in which the regular-season champion receives the automatic NCAA bid. Starting in 2025, a five-team league tournament will determine that.
Hill isn’t sure if the Big West will be strong enough to be considered for an at-large bid this year, but he wants to put the ‘Bows in the best position for consideration, should they finish in second. The program has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2010.
Hawaii, despite losing its top two hitters from the lineup in Matt Wong and Jacob Igawa, was picked fourth in the Big West preseason poll coming off a 29-20 (18-12 Big West) season.
Punahou graduate Kyson Donahue is one of UH’s biggest bats returning with seven home runs in 2023. The senior figures to play all around the diamond again and in left field, as needed. He said he learned to shorten his swing while competing in the prestigious Cape Cod League in the offseason.
“I made some tweaks and hopefully it’s going to pay off,” said Donahue, who cooled off down the stretch last season to finish with a .294 batting average.
Ben Zeigler-Namoa (.301), Jared Quandt (.299) and Stone Miyao (.297) are UH’s leading returnees in the lineup. Miyao, the second baseman out of Waiakea High, hit a walk-off home run against UC Santa Barbara to close the 2023 campaign with style.
Sophomore left-hander Harrison Bodendorf, a Freshman All-America recipient, is the new Friday night starter in place of Harry Gustin, a first-team All-Big West selection who was taken by the San Diego Padres as the 551st pick of the 2023 MLB Draft.
In lieu of joining an offseason league, the lean Bodendorf worked to gain 10 pounds over the summer and added a slider to his fastball-changeup arsenal.
“Every pitcher wants to be the Friday guy and have a chance to do that for their team. It’s pretty special,” said the 6-foot-5 native of Temecula, Calif., who was 5-2 with a 3.45 earned-run average as a freshman who’d get summoned when Hill needed him for innings long or short on any day of a weekend.
“It’s definitely changed my preparation, because I can kind of have more of a set routine,” Bodendorf said. “Last year I would kind of have to feel my arm out throughout the week and be like, ‘OK, I’ve got to be ready to go Friday, but I can’t be too ready to go Friday because if I don’t throw Friday I’ve got to go Saturday and I kind of can’t go too hard.’ Things like that. Now I can be set, do everything during the week to be completely ready for Friday, and that’s it.”
Left-hander Connor Harrison (2.70 ERA) and righty Alex Giroux (2.83) are also back from the core of last year’s pitching staff.
UH has two new coaches in pitching coach Keith Zuniga and veteran Lindsay Meggs. Zuniga, a former interim coach at New Mexico State who values analytics, replaces the well-liked Mathew Troupe, who accepted a pitching assistant position at Loyola Marymount.
“Keith’s been awesome,” Giroux said. “I was a little skeptical because we all liked Troupe so much, but he did a really good job of coming in and being really personable. He’s like Troupe that way where he’s really good at talking to his players and building that relationship.”
Meggs, the retired Washington coach, was persuaded by his childhood friend Hill to return to coaching and assumes the spot occupied by former recruiting coordinator Dan Cox, who accepted a West Coast position with Prep Baseball Report.
“(Meggs) is one of the brightest minds in college baseball, and to go for a championship for the state of Hawaii together is really, really cool,” Hill said.
Director of Player Development Dallas Correa also left for a catching coordinator position with the Milwaukee Brewers; Rayson Romero now fills that position for UH coming off an assistant stint at Hawaii Pacific.
Notable newcomers to the roster include:
- Itsuki Takemoto, a two-way player from Wakayama, Japan, who has a five-pitch arsenal and a considerable following in his homeland
- Elijah Ickes, a Kamehameha graduate and 2023 state champion at infield who has “improved at a meteoric rate,” per Hill
- Jake Tsukada, an Aiea native and senior transfer from Portland who is a two-time All-West Coast Conference honorable mention
- Austin Machado, a St. John’s transfer at catcher who batted. 303 with four home runs in 2023
UH closed 2023 by winning seven of nine, and nine straight at home for a tie for fifth place. Upstart UC San Diego won the Big West outright in its third year of transitional Division I status, but the Tritons were ineligible for the postseason, so Cal State Fullerton represented the league in the NCAA Tournament. UCSD is in its final year of transition in 2024.
The 'Bows and Rebels play a seven-inning/nine-inning doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1:05 p.m. and conclude the series with a 1:05 p.m. matinee Sunday.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.