Now come the real tests for the Hawai'i baseball team.

After a challenging pre-league schedule that saw the Rainbows (7-13) go 0-9 against nationally ranked opponents, Hawai'i will open the Western Athletic Conference season against two-time defending champion Fresno State (8-10).

The four-game series has single games at 6:35 p.m. today and tomorrow and concludes with a 1:05 p.m. doubleheader Saturday at Les Murakami Stadium.

The Bulldogs, who started the season nationally ranked, are favored to defend their crown.

"I've always thought Hawai'i and LaTech had the best physical teams," FSU coach Mike Batesole said. "It still might turn out that way. It's still early. I think we were picked to win based on what we did last year."

Like the Rainbows, the Bulldogs have struggled in their pre-league games. Hawai'i coach Mike Trapasso said an opportunity is waiting to be grasped.

"Our league isn't strong right now," Trapasso said. "All of our non-conference schedules have been solid, but none of us has played them well. The reality is no matter how things have gone up to this point, everybody's 0-0 now. And it's a winnable league because everybody's been struggling. So the team that gets hot the next eight, 10 weeks can win this league."

Trapasso believes his team has the ingredients to be that hot team.

"We've got the guys that are capable of doing it," he said. "Now, it's about competing. We've gone up to (Tuesday's game against San Diego) measuring everything with getting better and taking a step back. Now, all that stuff is out the window. It's about performance and it's about wins."

Trapasso said his team needs to get better offensively. Batesole echoes the sentiment about his club. The Bulldogs average 5.72 runs per game, while the Rainbows average 4.40. Those are the lowest two among WAC teams.

"We haven't taken smart at-bats all year," Batesole said. "We've pitched smart, we've played solid defense, but we haven't swung the bats as smart as we'd like to swing. You look at our strikeouts, it's ridiculous. We're trying to get it going, but we haven't got it figured out just yet."

Like the Rainbows, the Bulldogs have played a challenging schedule — No. 12 California, No. 19 San Diego, plus teams expected to compete in their conferences like Cal Poly in the Big West and Santa Clara and Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. Still, Batesole expects better from his offense.

"We've seen some outstanding pitching, no doubt that's part of it," Batesole said. "But this is a team that has everybody back but (Brian) Lapin and (Ozzie) Lewis. These guys have seen that kind of pitching before and had success. This year we haven't for some reason."

The Rainbows and Bulldogs rank fifth and seventh, respectively, in strikeout frequency in the WAC.

Batesole will not be at tonight's game as he serves the second game of his two-game suspension by the WAC because of a bench-clearing incident during a March 12 game against Indiana. He said the suspension entails not being on the premises, so he will probably watch the game on TV from his hotel room.

The Rainbows have seen their share of high draft prospect pitchers this season. They will get another one in right-hander Tanner Scheppers (3-1, 1.04), who throws a mid-90s mph fastball along with a slider in the 83-86 mph range, according to an article in Baseball America.

Hawai'i will counter with right-hander Jared Alexander (2-2, 2.18), the only Rainbow to start each of the last five weekends. He has gone from the No. 2 to No. 1 in the rotation.

Left-hander Nick Rhodes has pitched his way into the No. 2 spot in the rotation after his strong outing against Long Beach State two weeks ago. He will face Justin Wilson (2-2, 4.64) tomorrow.

Freshman right-hander Josh Slaats (0-1, 3.52) has overcome a poor start against Portland (1 2/3 innings, 5 runs) with strong relief stints and a six-inning, one-run performance in a start against Alabama-Birmingham. He will start the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, Trapasso said. The Bulldogs' probable starter is Clayton Allison (0-2, 5.40), who was picked as the preseason WAC Pitcher of the Year by the league's coaches.

Josh Schneider was initially scheduled as the other Saturday starter, but his two-thirds of an inning outing Tuesday against San Diego might change things. Trapasso said a starter will be announced later, possibly a game-time decision based on which pitchers are available. Fresno State is slated to start right-hander Justin Miller (2-0, 1.86).

For the Rainbows, who are looking for more consistency on offense, conference play gives them a chance to prove they're better than their record.

"The good thing is we have the opportunity to start from scratch and start competing better," Trapasso said.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.