By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

It can't have been easy for University of Hawai'i baseball coach Mike Trapasso to lose his friend and first hire, Josh Sorge, as the Rainbows' batting coach this week.

When you bring somebody you've known and worked with 4,500 miles to a new job to share a vision, then, 11 months later, part company, there has to be considerable pain and regret.

Whether the parting was voluntary or not, the move would have been justified.

The Rainbows were due for a thorough shakeup after a 16-40 season that was the worst in the school's history. Changes were required not only on the field, where some players have been encouraged to seek their level elsewhere, but in the coaching box where the need for change in direction and better communication was also apparent.

Nobody expected the Rainbows to be Murderer's Row at the plate this year. But when a team hits just .253 — 35 points below their conference average — with aluminum bats, there is a problem. And it wasn't the equipment.

But as history has told us time and again, just because change is merited at UH doesn't always mean it will come. How many times, in baseball as well as other sports, have the tough choices gone unmade or been postponed to the point of becoming too little too late? How often has somebody just shrugged their shoulders and let friendship prevail over reason?

Which is why you've got to give Trapasso some credit for accepting Sorge's resignation.

He, more than most, knows the pitfalls of procrastination and the depth of the challenge in turning around UH's fortunes. By the time he was hired this time last year, a recruiting cycle had all but expired, making an already thin talent situation worse.

To have sat on his hands now would have been to foolishly add to the formidable problems of rebuilding a once-proud program.

Of course, one year into a three-year contract, he also understands an additional urgency. The first season was basically a freeby to do as best he could. That's as it should have been given the degree of difficulty involved and timeframe he inherited.

As Trapasso matures as a head coach, recruits his players and puts his brand on the program, he will be expected to demonstrate progress in year two.

The betting is that he will. That, if given time, Trapasso is the man to get things turned around.

He's already shown he knows what has to be done and isn't afraid, no matter how difficult, to do what it will take.