Hawai'i will play New Mexico State in the opening round of the Western Athletic Conference baseball tournament Thursday in Ruston, La.

The Rainbows (27-29 overall, 18-14 WAC), who entered yesterday in third place, became the second seed when San Jose State completed a four-game series sweep of Nevada, which dropped to 18-14 in the WAC. Because UH took three of four from Nevada during the regular season, the Rainbows won the tie-breaker for seeding purposes. The Aggies (15-17) are the fifth seed.

Hawai'i's game is slated for 10 a.m., Hawai'i time. It is the second of three opening round games at J.C. Love Field, home site of Louisiana Tech (7-23), which failed to qualify for the six-team tournament. Fresno State won its third consecutive regular season WAC championship.

In other opening-round games, top-seeded Fresno State (21-11) will play sixth-seeded Sacramento State (14-17) and third-seeded Nevada will face fourth-seeded San Jose State (17-14).

Sacramento State and San Jose State each had a game canceled against Louisiana Tech (7-23), so they each have one fewer game than the other teams in the double-elimination tournament.

The tournament champion is guaranteed an NCAA regional bid. The WAC is not expected to receive any at-large bids because none of the teams have overall records that are deemed worthy of consideration.

The Rainbows recently split a four-game series at New Mexico State, but took three of four from the Aggies earlier in the season at Les Murakami Stadium, taking the season series, 5-3.

Ironically, the other two tournament openers are repeats of series just played over the weekend. Fresno State split its series with Sacramento State. Nevada started its series one game behind Fresno State, but after getting swept by San Jose State, fell to three games back. Moreover, UH's last conference series was at New Mexico State. The Rainbows closed out their regular season losing two of three from independent Utah Valley over the weekend.

The Rainbows departed last night for Ruston. This is their second trip to the farthest east site in the WAC. Trapasso wanted to get an early jump to get the players acclimated to the time difference (five hours). It is UH's third trip to the Mainland within a month. The Rainbows played at Louisiana Tech April 25 to 27, splitting that series. They also played at NMSU May 8 to 10, splitting that series, too.

But the traveling might be the least of UH's issues. The Rainbows will apparently have to make do without ace Jared Alexander. The right-hander has been unavailable since a May 2 game against Sacramento State, when he went five-plus innings before pulling himself out after feeling discomfort in his elbow. He skipped starts from the New Mexico trip and this past weekend against Utah Valley.

Alexander (7-3, 3.27 ERA) has been UH's most consistent starting pitcher. After Saturday's game, Trapasso said Alexander would not be able to pitch Thursday. Alexander leads all UH pitchers with 12 starts.

The Rainbows also will be without pitchers Alex Bates (elbow) and Alex Capaul (elbow and jaw). Bates (0-1, 5.51), who wasn't active until about midseason while recovering from tendinitis, made four appearances, all starts. Capaul (1-3, 7.52) had made 13 appearances, four of them starts.

Making the next-most starts for UH are Nick Rhodes (4-6, 5.23) and Matt Daly (5-4, 5.04), who also made nine relief appearances, earning two saves.

Josh Schneider (5-2, 5.11) has made five starts among his 14 appearances. Freshman Josh Slaats (0-4, 6.21) has 12 appearances, seven of them starts, but from early in the season.

Also, Fresno State ace Tanner Scheppers (8-2, 2.93) apparently has a stress fracture in his shoulder, according to www.MLB.com's draft blog by Jonathan Mayo. He did not pitch the weekend series against Sacramento State.