April 18, 2008

Honolulu, HI (UWIRE) -- The University of Hawai'i Rainbow baseball team (16-21, 8-8 WAC) will host the Nevada Wolf Pack in a four-game weekend conference series starting Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

The 'Bows have won seven of their last nine games, with their latest win coming last weekend, when they hosted the New Mexico State Aggies. The Rainbows took three of the four games to claim the series and jump into fourth place in the Western Athletic Conference standings.

"We're just playing better and that's the most important thing. I'm happy for the guys because they're showing a lot of resiliency in handling adversity," said head coach Mike Trapasso. "We're seeing maturity and growth from our young guys, and we played a great schedule early and I think all that adversity did was make our team better."

Nevada leads the all-time series between the two teams with a nine-game advantage (27-18). The Wolf Pack are currently in third place in the WAC with an 8-4 conference record and a 21-14 overall record for the season. They are currently on a four-game win streak after sweeping Utah Valley University in a four-game series last weekend.

One aspect that keeps the Wolf Pack on top of the WAC standings is their offensive power. As a team, they sport a .321 batting average, with senior infielder David Ciarlo hitting .439.

"It's going to be a great challenge for us this week because Nevada is a team that can really, really hit. ... They are a very offensive club, so if we don't pitch well, they'll wear us out," Trapasso said. "So we'll just focus on ourselves, just trying to play well, and if we do that, we have a chance to win."

The matchup begins at 6:35 p.m. Friday night with junior Jared Alexander taking the mound. Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled to start at 1:05 p.m. with the second game starting 45 minutes after the end of the first game. The series concludes on Sunday with an afternoon game starting at 1:05 p.m.

(C) 2008 Ka Leo O Hawaii via UWIRE