UH baseball begins practice Monday

Not everyone in Hawaii will be glued to the TV at 3:30 p.m. for today’s College Football Playoff title game between Oregon and Ohio State.

The University of Hawaii baseball team will hit the field an hour earlier for its first practice of the spring in preparation for the season opener in 32 days against the Ducks at Les Murakami Stadium.

Head coach Mike Trapasso opens his 14th season at the helm with a lot of new players as the program goes through a fairly decent overhaul from last season.

It’s no secret the transition from the WAC to the Big West has been tougher in baseball than any other sport. Hawaii had eight 30-win seasons and nine winning seasons in a 10-year span from 2003-2012. UH joined the Big West for the start of the 2013 season and in two seasons, the ‘Bows are 38-66 overall and 17-34 in conference games.

Trapasso was given the opportunity to right the ship with a three-year contract extension in the offseason. UH has to replace nearly 70 percent of its innings from last year, including senior Matt Cooper, who had one of the greatest single-season pitching performances in UH history. Offensively, it was again a struggle as UH hit .249 as a team after batting .239 in 2013.

We’re expecting as many as 20 new faces at practice today. As has always been the case under Trapasso, practices are closed to the media. Potentially, there could be as many as six new position starters when the season opens in a month. There are a lot of unknowns, but for a team averaging 33 losses over the past two seasons, that is probably a good thing.

12:20 p.m.: Updated 2015 UH baseball roster.