Posted at 10:52 a.m., Tuesday, January 15, 2002

UH picked next to last in baseball poll

Advertiser Staff

The University of Hawai'i baseball team was picked to finish fifth in the six-team Western Athletic conference in a poll of conference coaches announced today.

Defending champion Rice was picked to finish first for the sixth consecutive season. The Owls are 11th nationally in Baseball America's preseason poll.

First baseman Gregg Omori was the only Rainbow chosen to the 15-man preseason all-conference team.

Rice third baseman Hunter Brown was voted the player of the year and Fresno State's Bob Runyon, the pitcher of the year. Both are seniors.

Of the forecast for a fifth-place finish, new UH coach Mike Trapasso said, "That's fine. I don't think preseason polls amount to much. They had to basically order me to turn my (ballot) in. I wasn't going to vote since I haven't see the teams."

Said Trapasso: "The only polls that count are where you finish at the end of the season."

The Rainbows finished fifth in 2001 at 16-20 (29-27 overall) under interim coach Carl Furutani, just ahead of UH-Hilo.

Louisiana Tech replaces the Vulcans in the conference this season.

The Rainbows will be the first WAC team to open play when they meet sixth-ranked Florida State Jan. 30th at Les Murakami Stadium.

The poll:

WAC Coaches Poll (First-place votes in parenthesis)

Rk. School Pts.

1. Rice (5) 25

2. Fresno St. 20

3. Nevada (1) 18

4. San Jose St. 13

5. Hawai'i 8

6. La.Tech 6