It's beginning to look a lot like last year.

The Hawai'i baseball team is in the middle of the seven-team Western Athletic Conference as it opens a crucial three-game series with first-place Louisiana Tech starting tonight at Les Murakami Stadium. The Rainbows (25-15 overall, 6-6 WAC) are in fourth place, three back of the Bulldogs (29-14, 9-3).

"I feel like there's a lot of similarities going into the situation we're in right now," UH starting pitcher Ian Harrington said. "Last year we came out from the middle of the pack and came to the top. I feel we're in the same position right now. We're in the middle of the pack right now and I believe we have what it takes to rise."

Part of what it takes are strong outings from the starting rotation. The Rainbows had two outings at Fresno State that showed their capabilities from earlier in the season. Several starts before the FSU season, the starters had labored, except for Joshua Schneider's complete-game shutout of San Jose State.

But Harrington (5-5, 4.01), moved from the front of the rotation to the back, had his longest outing in five starts when he went 6 2/3 innings (two runs) against Fresno State. He said moving back in the rotation had nothing to do with pitching better.

"I felt in my last couple starts where I struggled a little bit, I was being too tentative," he said. "On Sunday, I felt like I just went out there I was more aggressive and went after hitters. I didn't try to get too fine with spots. I just went after hitters."

Last year, Harrington won his last six decisions of the season, en route to a 9-3 record, as the third starter.

With Harrington going Sundays, the rotation moved up a day. Mark Rodrigues (7-2, 3.22) will once again open the series. He went only five innings (three runs) against Fresno State, but could have gone six, UH coach Mike Trapasso said.

"He was actually throwing better in the later innings," Trapasso said.

But the game was still close and not wanting to leave things to chance, Matt Daly came in for the next two innings followed by Tyler Davis.

Trapasso would like his starters to pitch at least seven innings, especially in the series opener. By not taxing the bullpen, there are still fresh arms in the bullpen for the next day. Still, if he needs to go to the pen in the sixth of the opener with a tight lead, he'll continue to go with Daly and Davis, say, instead of bridging the gap with other relievers.

"Early on in the series, we'll still go to those guys that we feel are best out of the bullpen," Trapasso said.

If need arises to use the pen early later on in the series, he will defer to the other relievers before using Daly or Davis if they are available to pitch if they have thrown the night before.

But the bottom line is Trapasso would rather the starters do the bulk of the work.

"What we need is the starter to control 70 percent of the game," he said. "We expect our guys to throw well every time they go out. When they don't it's a surprise to us. When you get to where you're going four bad starts in a row, you start to take a look at things. But that hasn't happened yet. We just need those guys to go out there and just relax and pitch like they have all year."

Schneider (3-2, 2.86) will start tomorrow for UH.

Hawai'i still leads the WAC in team ERA at 3.34, well below the league average of 5.17. Louisiana Tech is third at 4.54. All three of UH's starters and two of the Bulldogs' starters — Dylan Moseley (6-3, 2.59) and Luke Burnett (4-5, 3.79) — rank in the league's top 10 in ERA. LaTech's other starter is Ryan Rupert (3-1, 6.70).

NOTES

This is the second to last chance to see the Rainbows. They are back on the road next week for a single game at Arizona State on Wednesday followed by a weekend WAC series at New Mexico State.

Hawai'i's next series is at UH-Hilo and then it goes to Nevada. The last home series is May 19 to 21 against Fresno State.

For tonight's game only, fans can redeem their Chevron gas receipt (8 gallons minimum) for two free tickets for upper level seats at Murakami Stadium.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.