More often than not, college pitching staffs are depleted by the finale of a four-game series, with coaches turning to a handful of names in search of the right combination of winning arms.
But on Sunday, the University of Hawai‘i baseball team needed just two pitchers to get through their 7-1 victory over Wichita State. Liam O'Brien tossed 5.1 hitless innings, while Freddy Rodriguez did the rest of the pitching, allowing just one hit with three strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
After sweeping Marshall to begin its 2025 campaign, the Rainbow Warriors played four games in four days against Wichita State, taking three from the Shockers to improve to 7-1 overall for the season. Rodriguez and O'Brien both pitched in Thursday's series opener, with Rodriguez going three frames and O'Brien pitching two.
O'Brien, the team's hardest thrower with a fastball reaching 98 miles per hour, was initially slated for a late relief role. On Sunday, he returned to the same role he had as a Northwoods League All-Star in the summer of 2024, where he went 6-1 with 74 strikeouts in 49.2 innings.
"I like closing just because it's very intense, and I can come out one inning, throw it as hard as I can, which is always fun. But I think starting is good because getting into a groove, and you get in the zone and stuff like that," said O'Brien, who acknowledged he's likely earned more starts moving forward.
Following the 2024 season, the Rainbow Warriors lost one of their top pitchers in Harrison Bodendorf via the NCAA transfer portal. In 2025, Bodendorf is already off to a 2-0 start through two starts with Oklahoma State.
In searching the portal, University of Hawai‘i pitching coach Keith Zuniga found O'Brien from Gonzaga and Rodriguez from Cal Poly.
"My high school coach he had a really good connection with Coach Zuniga, and everyone that knew I was in the portal really recommended me and wanted me to come here to play under him," said O'Brien, a graduate of Salpointe Catholic High School in Arizona. "I was like, why not? I mean, it's Hawai‘i too, so it was really good opportunity."
Added Rodriguez, a native of West Sacramento, Calif.: "I got the call from (Zuniga) to come here, and I committed right away. I love this place. I have friends that are from Hawai‘i, and it just led me to this spot. I needed a coach that believed in me and just let me be who I am out there, and Zuni was the perfect fit for that, along with Coach (Rich) Hill."
Zuniga was pleased with his two portal finds on Sunday, noting that the Rainbow Warriors are comfortable testing their depth at the end of any given series.
"Anytime you go into a Sunday, it's kind of a whatever you have left in the tank type mentality," said Zuniga, who is currently in his second season with UH. "Go out there and empty it, and we'll come out and get you when we need to.
"Here, we've never really named a Sunday starter. You always want to put yourself in a good position to win the series, right? So you never want to save anything for two, three, four days later."
In 2024, O'Brien had an ERA of 12.27 in five appearances, while Rodriguez's ERA was inflated to 81.00 after appearing in two games and only recording one out. Both were able to bounce back in the summer, with O'Brien leading the Northwoods League in strikeouts and Rodriguez going 6-0 with 1.02 ERA in six starts with the Portland Pickles. Both have carried that momentum over to UH. O'Brien has not allowed an earned run or a hit in his 10.1 innings pitched, while Rodriguez also has an ERA of 0.00 with just two hits allowed.
"It's awesome," Zuniga said. "It's all about the process, right? And dominating each and every single day. We knew the way they've worked, the way they're about the process and go about their business, they were very capable of this. So I wouldn't say we're surprised, but it's just a credit to their work for working hard and staying with it every single day."
