Because of financial constraints, the University of Hawai'i has granted ESPN 1420 a waiver from its contract, allowing it to skip airing two games of a showdown baseball series from New Mexico State Saturday from Las Cruces, N.M., the school and radio station said.

Under the terms of the current contract, the station would have been required to do "all home and away" UH baseball games this season, as has been the standard for several years.

But citing "budget restrictions," the station asked UH officials in December to allow it to leave some games uncovered.

"It is a pretty tough situation out there and we're trying to do right by the fans but, at the same time, we don't want to kill the hand that feeds you," said Jim Donovan, UH athletic director. "Our contractors are facing an uphill (financial) situation just like we are."

UH is contracted to receive, on average, $367,666 per year from the station for each year of a deal that runs through June 30, 2011.

Randall Ikeda, general manager of ESPN 1420, estimated it would have cost about $5,000 to send sportscaster Don Robbs to both today's non-conference game at Arizona State and the four-game Friday-Sunday Western Athletic Conference series at New Mexico State.

Ikeda said the station would use a feed of the Arizona State broadcast crew for today's game and feeds from the New Mexico State crew for Friday and Sunday. There is no NMSU feed for Saturday's doubleheader.

With the exception of a period in which he was out with an angioplasty, Robbs has done UH road games for more than 30 years. His son, Scott, filled in during the interim. Last year, because of technical difficulties, the station was unable to do a doubleheader from the Coca-Cola Classic in Surprise, Ariz., but Robbs was there to phone in periodic updates. Robbs has broadcast approximately 2,000 UH games since 1977.

Ikeda said the station expects to fulfill its commitment to broadcast all UH football, women's volleyball and men's basketball games, home and away in 2009, as contracted.