The young players on the Hawai'i baseball team can take a page out of the Derek DuPree book on perseverance.

When last seen at Les Murakami Stadium, DuPree could be found mostly in the dugout, mired in a batting slump that had him hitting .188. But since the Rainbows' recent road trip to Northern California, he's been sighted mostly on the bases. All the fifth-year senior outfielder (but most recently designated hitter) did was bat 18 for 39 (.462) to raise his average 150 points to .338.

"I can't say enough about his weekend," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "He was huge. The maturity shows the type of person that he is.

"Not having played for a stretch of a couple of weeks ... then coming back and just being better than ever, it's just a testament to the type of kid that he is and the competitor that he is."

Indeed.

It could've been easy for DuPree to sulk over the slump or feel sorry for himself. A torn left anterior cruciate ligament from two summers ago has taken his speed — one of his best assets — away. Instead, he just focused on getting better.

"Just working hard helped me out a lot," said DuPree. "You never know when you're going to get a chance to get in there. When you do, you have to make the most of it."

Hawai'i's improved hitting seemed to coincide with DuPree's return to the starting lineup on March 29 at Sacramento State. The Rainbows posted double-digit hits in all games since then, save for the four-hitter San Jose State's Ryan Shopshire parlayed into Pitcher of the Week honors.

Though the Rainbows were swept by the Hornets, their bats still had some buzz in them to beat nationally ranked Stanford, which moved from No. 13 to 10 by taking 2 of 3 from previously top-ranked Arizona State over the weekend. Their bats were still hot, except for the one game, at San Jose.

"We've changed our hitting approach as a team," DuPree said. "We're focusing less on mechanics and more on just letting the ball get deep. I personally just focused on hitting the ball on the ground, to keep making sure I don't hit too many fly balls."

After redshirting his true freshman year in 2004, DuPree hit a respectable .275 his first season. In his sophomore season, he showed the ability UH coaches saw when they recruited him out of Shorecrest High in Seattle. He hit .313 with six doubles, two triples and a home run with 29 runs and 27 RBIs. He was 5 for 5 in steals, and ended the season on an 11-game hitting streak. He was named to all-Regional team at Corvallis, Ore., where the Rainbows fell a game short of advancing to the Super Regionals to eventual national champion Oregon State.

But he suffered a setback during the summer after his best season. A mo-ped mishap left him with the torn ACL. DuPree said he had to hit his hand brakes, but one of them snapped, forcing him to use his legs to stop.

"I was kind of fish-tailing and I kind of stepped off and let the mo-ped fall," DuPree recalled. "But when my foot hit (the ground), it just locked up."

He could not play summer ball, an integral part of a player's development during his college years. Worse, he was robbed of his speed, a crucial part of his game. Still, he was able to play in 44 games, batting .277 with 10 doubles. But after going 8 of 9 stealing the first two seasons, he was 4 of 7.

"It affected me a lot," DuPree said. "To this day, it still hurts all the time. I feel I'm not the same guy I used to be."

DuPree will graduate in May with a degree in sociology. He would like to continue in pro ball and is looking to play overseas, possibly in Holland or in South Korea. His sister, Danielle, and her husband both teach English in South Korea.

"I want to teach English over there and I may try out for a team over there," DuPree said. "I have to see if that's possible."

With the attitude DuPree has brought to UH baseball, it would seem anything is possible.