RENO, Nev. — Let the second season begin.

Fifth-seeded Hawai'i is looking for redemption from a disappointing regular season when it takes on host Nevada in an opening round game of the Western Athletic Conference baseball tournament tonight at Peccole Park. Game time is 4 p.m., Hawai'i time.

"We're going to start with a clean slate," said UH senior pitcher Ian Harrington, who will start today's game. "We didn't perform as well as we wanted to in WAC play. We feel right now there are zeros across the board and we're ready to change all that."

Even coach Gary Powers of the second-seeded Wolf Pack (32-24) concurs.

"I don't think the regular season has any effect, positive or negative, beyond what's going on this weekend," he said. "Everybody starts fresh, starts new. It has nothing to do with what you've done to this point. It solely comes down to how you play in the four days ... There's a lot of kids who struggled and this gives them the opportunity to redeem themselves. And the ones that have played well, they have the pressure of continuing to play well."

Hawai'i coach Mike Trapasso has said all season that when the Rainbows play well, they usually win. But some days, it hasn't been pretty.

Powers knows the feeling. After sweeping UH two weeks ago here, the Wolf Pack proceeded to drop two of three to fourth-seeded San Jose State, suffering the same fate as the Rainbows have when they have played poorly, committing 10 errors between the two losses. They played errorless ball in their victory.

"It kind of put us on our heels, kind of took some wind out of our sails in terms of momentum that we've built up," Powers said of losing that series. "I thought we played very well on Sunday (when Nevada beat SJSU) in all aspects of the game. "

Added Trapasso: "If we play with passion for most of our games, we'll have a chance. Particularly if the wind stays the way it is: blowing in. I think it favors us over the bigger teams that hit home runs, but it still centers on us playing with that passion. If we go out and played like we did here last time (when UH was swept), then we won't (win)."

Powers added that the tournament is wide-open because of parity. He noted that five of the six teams have similar overall records (32 to 35 wins and 22 to 27 losses).

"You could put a blanket on six teams in this league and have no idea who's going to come up from underneath it, because we're all basically the same kinds of teams," Powers said. "Everybody has the same set of problems they're dealing with. That's just the way this conference is."

Nevada will go with right-hander Ryan Rodriguez (8-6, 3.59) today against Harrington, who is coming off a poor outing in a 7-5 loss to Fresno State in 10 innings. Harrington went just 2 2/3 innings, allowing four runs.

"I need to be aggressive, go after their hitters and not be tentative," Harrington said.

Hawai'i's record was somewhat disappointing coming off a 45-17 record that earned it an at-large regional berth, its first regional since 1993. Worse, the Rainbows returned a nice core of seniors who benefitted from postseason experience.

"We feel we have a lot of veteran guys that played a lot of playoff games and that we're ready for the challenge," Harrington said. "I think the guys aren't going out there thinking so much that it's a playoff game, but doing what we're capable of just doing because we have that experience."

Meanwhile, shortstop Eli Christensen is still a game-time decision because of arm problems. Trapasso said Christensen's throwing looked OK during yesterday's workout, which was held at Peccole Park on the Nevada campus.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.