No. 20 Hawai'i finds itself in hostile territory again when it resumes Western Athletic Conference baseball play in a four-game series at New Mexico State.

The series starts 2:05 p.m. (Hawai'i time) today, continues with an 11:05 a.m. doubleheader tomorrow and concludes at 9:05 a.m. Sunday. ESPN 1420 AM will air all games via NMSU's broadcasts.

This is a crucial series for both teams. The Rainbows (24-14 overall, 7-4 WAC) share the conference lead with Nevada, but the Aggies (32-8, 7-5) trail by just a half game.

Presley Askew Field is a home run haven for hitters or purgatory for pitchers. The Aggies lead all WAC teams in batting average (.354), runs (11.4 per game), doubles (106) and home runs (84). But contrary to their reputation of all hitting and no pitching, the Aggies apparently are holding their own on the mound. They are third in the WAC in team earned run average at 5.08, nice considering where half their games are played.

"This is a very good club," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "This is a Top 25 club. They're as good as their record says."

While the Rainbows are nationally ranked on the strength of their schedule and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), the Aggies apparently are hampered by their schedule. As of yesterday, UH's strength of schedule was 17, NMSU's 71; UH's RPI was 15, NMSU's 144. (Both ratings, considered unofficial, are according to boydsworld.com.)

"They're getting no respect because they haven't played a good schedule," Trapasso said. "When you win a lot of games, you start playing with confidence. That's where they are right now."

While the Aggies have hitters with gaudy numbers (Mike Sodders and Jeffrey Farnham are batting .418 and .409, respectively, and Bryan Marquez has a league-leading 18 home runs and 60 RBIs), they also have some decent pitching. Daniel Simon is 8-0 with a 2.77 ERA, which is third-best in the league. Sebastien Vendette, the Sunday starter, is 5-1 with a 4.31 ERA, which is ninth-best in the WAC.

The Rainbows can help their cause by keeping up offensively. On the mound, pitchers must limit walks and keep their pitches down.

Hawai'i is staying with the rotation it used to take 3 of 4 from Sacramento State last weekend. Jayson Kramer starts tonight with Matt Sisto and Nate Klein pitching in that order for tomorrow's doubleheader and Jared Alexander scheduled for Sunday. Alexander is coming off his best outing (two runs in six innings against Sacramento State).

ON THE AIR AFTER ALL

Honolulu radio station ESPN 1420 AM has come up with audio for a broadcast of tomorrow's doubleheader from Las Cruces, N.M., UH announced yesterday.

The station, which had earlier said it would not be able to carry the middle two games of the four-game series, will use audio from NMSU's AggieVision TV for tomorrow's first game. Then, NMSU announcer Kyle Doperalski will stick around to do the second game for the Honolulu station, according to Pakalani Bello of the UH sports information office.

ESPN 1420 has already scheduled to pick up NMSU's broadcast of today's series opener and Sunday's finale.