Playoff time has arrived for the University of Hawai‘i baseball team.
On Wednesday, the Rainbow Warriors will take on Cal State Fullerton in the play-in game of the Big West Conference tournament, UH's final Big West tournament before it joins the Mountain West this summer.
Before it looks ahead to life in a new conference, the 'Bows will attempt to win the Big West for the first time. After joining the conference in 2013, the 'Bows have never finished higher than third in the standings.
Hawai‘i, the No. 4 seed in the Big West tournament, will face Cal State Fullerton, the No. 5 seed. The winner will advance to join UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and UC San Diego in the double-elimination four team tournament. Meanwhile, the loser will head home.
After wrapping up their regular season on Friday against CSUN, the rested Rainbow Warriors will be at full strength against the Titans on Wednesday.
"We got a really good schedule. This just worked out right," UH head coach Rich Hill said on Friday. "Our pitching staff's ready, position players are ready."
Taking the mound for the 'Bows to open the tournament will be ace pitcher Isaiah Magdaleno, who won Big West Pitcher of the Week for the third week in a row on Monday following his latest game, a 14-strikeout shutout against CSUN in which he allowed just one hit.
On Tuesday, Hawai‘i got its first practice in at UC Irvine's Cicerone Field, the site of the tournament. The Rainbow Warriors also took a moment to celebrate their Big West All-Conference selections, featuring Magdaleno and reliever Tsubasa Tomii making the first team. Additionally, Hilo native and No. 2 starter Hekili Robello made the second team, while Ben Zeigler-Namoa and Tate Shimao were named honorable mention.
"It's great," Tomii said in a media call on Tuesday. "So grateful. I thought I'm not gonna get it, so I'm grateful. ... It was good season, but still I gotta do my job. We still have a lot of games left, so the job is not done yet."
Tomii held hitters to just a .163 batting average and a 1.11 ERA in 24.1 innings over conference games. Meanwhile, Robello, who is currently 9-4, is hoping to get the chance to become Hawai‘i's first 10-game winner since Steven Wright in 2006. If UH defeats Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday, he would in all likelihood be penciled in as the starter against UC Santa Barbara on Thursday.
"It would be awesome to win the first game and keep on going," Robello said.
But like its move to the Mountain West, Hawai‘i isn't looking ahead just yet.
"We had a practice today, everyone's smiling. It's been great," Tomii said. "Honestly, we don't care who we play, we just want to play Hawai‘i baseball, we just trust each other, and then once again just having fun, and then hopefully get the win tomorrow."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
