Although it was cloudy yesterday, it turned out to be a nice day for the University of Hawai'i baseball team.

Starting pitcher Mark Rodrigues has been cleared to play in time for this weekend's three-game non-conference series against Santa Clara at Les Murakami Stadium. Coach Mike Trapasso wasted little time in naming the left-hander the starter for the second game of the series on Saturday.

"It's been tough on him, I know, because he's had to grab a catcher out of practice time to do things on his own," Trapasso said. "He knows how to get ready because he's done it so long with us. He's in shape and ready to go."

Rodrigues had been awaiting clearance for eligibility to play his fourth athletic season in his sixth year in school. After transferring from Los Medanos JC after the 2003 season, Rodrigues sat out the 2004 and 2005 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. He returned last season, which was his fifth year, but only his third in competition. The school had to apply for a medical hardship so Rodrigues could play this season. Before becoming eligible, he was not allowed to practice with the team.

"I'm mostly happy for Mark and obviously I'm happy for our whole team because it's going to help us and make us better and give us more depth in the bullpen," Trapasso said. "But mostly, I'm happy for him because of all he's been through, having missed two years because of this injury and battling back last year to get back to form."

Hawai'i assistant athletics director of compliance Bill Bryant brought Trapasso the news just before noon yesterday.

"I want to thank Bill Bryant for all his work on this because he got it done in time right before the season started which is all that counts," Trapasso said.

The Rainbows are awaiting clearance on other issues regarding pitchers Josh Schneider and Derek Tarapacki. Trapasso is hopeful the two will be cleared by the weekend.

With that, left-hander Ian Harrington is slated to start Friday's opener. Sunday's starter is either left-hander Nicholas Rhodes or possibly Schneider, Trapasso said.

Santa Clara was picked to finish sixth in the eight-team West Coast Conference in a preseason poll of the league's coaches.

'BOWS, 'DOGS PICKED

Hawai'i and defending league champion Fresno State were picked as co-favorites to win the Western Athletic Conference in a poll of the league's coaches conducted by the WAC.

A coach is not allowed to vote for his team. Both the Rainbows and Bulldogs each received three first-place votes with Louisiana Tech, picked to take third, getting one.

"You know me on preseason polls," said Trapasso, who picked Fresno State. "They don't mean a lot. You have to do it on the field."

Baseball America picked UH to win the WAC with Louisiana Tech second, predicting both would get regional berths.

"I kind of favor the coaches' poll because the coaches are the ones who know each other's team and know who's coming back," Trapasso said.

Also, the coaches picked six UH players for the preseason all-WAC team. Harrington (9-3, 3.99 ERA in 2006) was picked as Pitcher of the Year.

Joining him were outfielder Derek DuPree, shortstop Eli Christensen, third baseman Justin Frash, catcher Landon Hernandez and relief pitcher Tyler Davis.

"It can hopefully keep our kids on task and focused to stay on top of things because the expectations are there," Trapasso said. "But there's nobody that's going to determine our expectations more than our kids."

Noticeably missing from the all-WAC teams were LaTech outfielder Jericho Jones (also a pitcher) and pitcher Luke Burnett, both sophomores. They were Baseball America's picks as the top player and pitcher, respectively. Trapasso said LaTech had no players on the preseason ballot, guessing it might have missed the deadline to nominate players.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.