For Hawai'i third baseman Justin Frash and catcher Landon Hernandez, hitting is like a ride on the 385.

Both use Les Murakami Stadium's center-field distance marker as a guide to their hitting. Yet, they do it in different ways.

To them, baseball is a contact sport that has nothing to do with running over fielders on the basepaths. Among the seven Rainbows with more than 50 plate appearances this season, the two have been the toughest to whiff.

"I'm a contact hitter, not a power hitter," explained Frash, a senior hitting .333. "I'll hit the gap occasionally, but it's just that I've always had that (ability to make contact) and I've been working on that my whole life."

Hernandez, playing regularly for the first time after a freshman season spent as an apprentice to Esteban Lopez, said he tries to be selective in each plate appearance. He is batting .309.

"I'd like to think I'm a little patient at the plate," Hernandez said. "I don't try to swing at pitches I can't handle. Every once in a while, I'll swing at bad pitches. I just look for balls that are in my zone. You can't miss mistakes. That's what the whole point of baseball is. You look for mistakes and take advantage of those mistakes."

They have struck out the fewest times among the starters who have played a majority of the games. Hernandez has struck out five times, or 8 percent of the time. Frash has fanned just twice, or just under 3 percent of the time. They are the only ones who have walked more times than struck out. The team strikes out 16 percent of the time; Frash and Hernandez are the only ones below that mark.

"Frash, in particular, doesn't surprise me," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "They hit to all fields. Landon has been doing a nice job. Majority of the balls he hits goes into right-center."

Frash and Hernandez also swing and miss the fewest times on the team. Of 281 pitches this season, Frash has swung and missed only eight times; Hernandez has missed nine out of 217 pitches.

Each player's key is that "385" marker on the center-field wall.

"You work '385' towards the middle," Hernandez explained. "If you work towards the middle, you're going to open up the whole field. You have the same swing. You throw your hands first and the barrel eventually comes. That's pretty much what's helped me out a lot. You go with your lead hand, throw it toward the middle of center field and put the ball where you can."

It apparently works. Hernandez's 17 hits have been spread out: six to the left third; seven to the middle third and four to the right.

Hernandez said he has 20/40 vision corrected to 20/15 with prescription contact lenses. He said he picks up the pitch from where the pitcher releases the ball.

For Frash, who led the team with a .359 batting average last season, it's literally "Eye-385."

He had been taught to pick up the pitch from the pitcher's hand since he was a youth. Now, he is working on a new way of focusing on a pitch. He eyes the "385" sign in center, moving his sight with the pitch. He learned the new method from Dr. Ron Reynolds, who said he picked up the idea from former Rainbow Dan Nyssen (1985 to 1987, 7th-round pick by Houston in 1987). Frash explained that by focusing on the background, his eyes begin moving as the pitcher begins his motion, giving the visual effect of slowing down the pitch.

"I've tried it a little bit this year," said Frash, whose natural vision is 20/20. "It's definitely hard. It's hard to get used to. That 3/10ths of a second really looks longer than it really is. It's one of the little things in baseball you can cheat."

Added Reynolds: "When (the pitcher) lets go of the ball, your eyes are already moving 20 miles an hour. If he's throwing 90, you only have to make up 70. But if you keep looking at the pitcher, your eyes are actually going zero miles an hour."

Just as pitchers need command, so do hitters. Frash leads the team with 19 walks. It's not that he isn't aggressive. Early in the count, he said he is looking for particular pitches to hit.

"We're in college baseball and (pitchers are) going to make a mistake sooner or later, so I just wait for that mistake," Frash said.

NOTES

With the Rainbows set to play five games in four days against Chicago State, coach Mike Trapasso said the series will give him a chance to play other players, especially pitchers.

"That's the biggest positive about this," Trapasso said. "Pitchers, players ... everybody's going to be able to get some opportunities. We'll be able to get more guys involved, which is what we've been trying to do all year, but we've been playing a lot of close games. That's a definite plus for this weekend."

Landon Hernandez, who has started all 15 games, is expected to get a breather with reserve Kevin Fujii getting some catching reps.

Second baseman Jon Hee won't have to be rushed back from a subluxed shoulder because it's still early in the season. Trapasso said freshman Kevin Macdonald will get some action. He had several good at-bats in the Wichita State series.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.