By Stephen Tsai Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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Bad news travels fast.

During a Hawaiian Airlines flight traveling at 500 mph from Long Beach to Honolulu, the Hawaii baseball team learned that its 2025 season had ended. The Rainbow Warriors, as expected, were not among the 64 teams receiving invitations to the NCAA Regionals.

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“Selection Monday is a tough day when you’re not in it,” UH head coach Rich Hill said.

“Obviously, we didn’t get the result we wanted,” senior shortstop Jordan Donahue said. “I feel like we had a lot more left in the tank. It was a super disappointing way to end the season. But I’m proud of the boys and the way we got after it every single game and ultimately came up short.”

The ’Bows won two of three on the road against Cal State Fullerton and claimed the three-game series against UC San Diego to earn one of the five berths in last week’s inaugural Big West Championship tournament at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif.

In the single-elimination opener, the fourth-seeded ’Bows ousted No. 5 UC Santa Barbara last Wednesday to advance to the double-elimination round. But top-seeded UC Irvine weathered a late UH rally for a 7-5 victory on Thursday. On Friday, the ’Bows pounded out 19 hits in a 16-4 rout of host Cal State Fullerton.

But on Saturday, No. 2 Cal Poly defeated UH 2-1 in what proved to be the ’Bows’ final game of the season. They finished 35-21. The ’Bows are 129-81 in Hill’s four seasons at UH, including 85-61 against Big West opponents.

Cal Poly defeated UCI on Saturday and Sunday to win the Big West tournament and earn the league’s automatic berth in the Regionals. UCI received an at-large berth.

The ’Bows appeared to be disappointed and emotionally spent when they arrived at Les Murakami Stadium on Monday to collect their belongings and check out of dormitories. Exit interviews are scheduled to start tomorrow, after which players will prepare for summer leagues, the Major League Baseball draft in July and, for some, post-baseball life.

“The sting of the last couple losses is kind of an open wound right now,” Hill said. “It’ll turn into a scar and then it’ll disappear. It’s good that our guys are pissed. It’s good that we expected more. The Irvine game could have gone our way very easily. And the same thing with that Cal Poly game.”

But Hill celebrated a season in which the ’Bows navigated a challenging schedule featuring four Regional-bound teams (Northeastern, Oregon State, UCI and Cal Poly). With a left-swinging-dominant lineup intended to make use of wind-friendly right field at Murakami Stadium, the ’Bows actually hit better against left-handed pitchers (.291) than righties (.285). Donahue and right fielder Jared Quandt were rare fourth-year ’Bows in the portal era.

The ’Bows also endured injuries to Donahue and third baseman Elijah Ickes, both of whom missed 18 games at separate times. First baseman Ben Zeigler-Namoa was clutch (.360 with runners on base), center fielder Matthew Miura was defiant (.410 with two outs). Left fielder Kamana Nahaku developed as a power hitter (10 home runs). And pitchers Isaiah Magdaleno, Sebastian Gonzalez, Freddy Rodriguez, Liam O’Brien and Ethan Thomas were dependable. Cooper Walls was the Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year. Itsuki Takemoto was named to the All-Big West first team as a two-way player.

“When you can kind of step away and look into a different window frame of all the things we’ve been able to do this year and over the last four years, it’s somewhat miraculous,” Hill said. “We’ll be able to see that eventually, whether that’s an hour from now, a couple days, or a week.”

But Hill also wants the ’Bows to use the view from the outside as motivation.

“I want to remember how this feels on Selection Monday (when) your name isn’t called and you’re left out,” Hill said. “Is that going to motivate you to work harder? To put the Air Pods in and go to really be diligent in summer baseball and come back in the fall with a very, very focused purpose? I think we’ve got some great leadership returning that will really have that mindset.”