The Big West Conference coaches preseason poll, announced Wednesday, Jan. 29, tabbed the University of Hawai'i baseball team to finish sixth in the nine team conference. The Rainbow Warriors finished seventh in 2019 and return the bulk of their pitchers and starting field players in 2020.

The Bows return two pieves that were injured in 2019. Outfielder Adam Fogel was out for much of 2019 and infielder Dustin Demeter missed all of 2019. The pair, added to last year's mix of returning Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year Scott Scott and All-Big West honorable mention Alex Baeza, will be a bulk of the Bows' offense in 2020. The Bows also return 2019's top batting average in redshirt junior Daylen Calicdan's .310 clip. 

Hawai'i also returns 42 of last year's 50 starts on the mound and also returns five of last year's six most used relievers.

Senior Logan Pouelsen, junior Cade Smith and sophomore Aaron Davenport look to be a polished weekend rotation, all returning with valuable starts and bright spots from a year before.

The junior college transfers, junior infielder Kole Kaler and outfield Matt Wong, will also be bright spots in the middle of the park for the Bows. Kaler hit .318 with 40 RBIs as a sophomore and stole 40 bases in two years at South Mountain CC in Phoenix, Ariz. Wong had a career .335 average for College of Southern Nevada and struck out less than 13 percent of his at bats as a sophomore.

Hawai'i opens the season with a two-game series against Hawai'i-Hilo Feb. 7-8 at Les Murakami Stadium. The Bows begin Big West Conference play at UC Santa Barbara March 27-29.