A little more than a week before it opens Western Athletic Conference play, Hawai'i finds itself just scratching the surface of its potential.

Yet, the Rainbows are 13-8 with four wins against nationally ranked teams and big victories on the road because of contributions spread out among different players. But with more consistency, who knows what they might achieve.

"You look at our numbers, we still need to get consistent," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "We didn't pitch as well this (past) week as we had been the previous couple weeks. We need to pitch better. We're still not consistent up and down our lineup. We're still not hitting where we can and where I think we will. We're still hitting below .250 and we're getting timely hits and we've got a couple guys who've been getting big hits for us. We've got a good group of kids that have a toughness about them so they've been able to overcome the mistakes that they've made."

The Rainbows are going to need to find that consistency starting tonight, when they begin a four-game series against nationally ranked and perennial Big South champion Coastal Carolina (18-4). The Chanticleers, who dropped 2 of 3 in a conference series at Winthrop over the weekend, are ranked 18th by Baseball America (and from 15 to 21 by three other services). They have been playing with the consistency UH hopes to achieve.

"This is probably the best team that I think that we'll play all year," Trapasso said. "So these guys can definitely expose any weaknesses or take advantage of any mistake we make."

Coastal Carolina averages nine runs per game, has a team batting average of .317, a .412 on-base percentage, 10 players with at least one home run and nearly every starter with at least double-digit RBIs. On the mound, the Chanticleers have a team earned run average of 2.92. The pitching staff has allowed just 165 hits in 194 innings with a batting average allowed of .229.

Hawai'i averages 5.4 runs per game with a team batting average of .246 and an on-base percentage of .377. The Rainbows' team ERA is 4.60.

The Rainbows returned Tuesday from a trip to Oregon, where they won the Rose City Invitational at Portland, but lost at Oregon State on Monday, finishing 3-2 on the road.

Ironically, the Chanticleers beat UH here, arriving Monday afternoon. According to a blog on the team's Web site, the team has already done a lu'au, visited the North Shore and did some snorkeling. They managed to squeeze in a workout at Les Murakami Stadium yesterday morning.

The quick turnaround for the Rainbows is the result of the condensed scheduling.

"The way things are now, there's no way around it," Trapasso said. "If you're going to play 56 games in 13 weeks, you're going to have a couple of stretches where you're going to have a lot games in a short period of time."

The Rainbows will stick with the same starting pitchers for the first three games of the series. Jayson Kramer starts tonight with Jared Alexander starting the first game and Matt Sisto the second game in tomorrow's doubleheader. Saturday's starter has yet to be determined. Freshman Connor Little was the fourth starter in last weekend's tournament in Portland. Trapasso said Little might be needed in relief earlier in the series and this move keeps his options open.

Relief pitcher Alex Myers, who was unavailable during the tournament because of a tender arm, did warm up in the bullpen in Monday's OSU game, although he didn't pitch in the game.

"Hopefully, he's OK (for this series)," Trapasso said.

Starting pitcher Nate Klein is still out for this series and possibly for next week's WAC opener against San Jose State.

The Rainbows and Chanticleers are 1-1 in the series, splitting a two-game series here in 2003.