Nebraska Baseball: Scouting report Hawaii

Huskers game 2 at the Houston Classic series will be played against the University of Hawaii. They will play against the ‘bows” on Saturday at 12:05 pm. Hawaii has a record of 5-8 on the season. The Rainbow Warriors have played 4 games against Oregon, 5 against Hofstra, and 4 against Pepperdine. They were picked to finish 7^th out of 9 teams in the Big West conference this year. Nebraska is 6-4. (1st game Friday against Texas A&M 3:35)

Houston College Classic

Head Coach for Hawaii, Mike Trapasso starts his 14^th season this year. The transition from WAC to the Big West (2013) has been a tougher road in baseball than any other sport for the school. They used to have 30-win seasons but are now 38-66 overall and 17-34 in conference games. Their practices are also closed to the media so there wasn’t much information out there for consumption. Thank goodness Coach Erstad is media friendly.

Key returning players for the Rainbow Warriors are seniors Kaeo Aliviado OF (currently at .265), Stephen Ventimilia INF (.286) and Jordan Richartz OF (.243). Head coach Mike Trapasso has 18 new players on the team and it looks like as many as 6 of them are taking positions on the field.

Leading hitters this year so far are Eric Ramirez at .386 after 13 starts and 44 Abs. Alex Jondal sits at .333 having appeared in oly 4 games and Alan Baldwin is close to the mark at .297 with 13 games played and 37 Abs.

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An interesting sidenote is that Hawaii could start Senior Jarret Arakawa against the Huskers possibly. He is recovering from his 2^nd shoulder surgery of his young career. He had a torn labrum costing him 2013 and had another tear fixed and came back for his 5^th year. UH has held other teams to 3 runs or less in 6 of 9 games this year.

This should be the easiest game for the Huskers in the 3 game series. The key will be to get the Nebraska pitcher, Kyle Kubat, to go late into the game in order to save more arms for the task against LSU on Sunday’s schedule. I look to see Johnny Wholestaff pitching on Sunday. That’s not to say Big Red should look past Hawaii. That’s why they make you play the game. GO BIG RED!!!