When UH coach Mike Trapasso left his first collegiate coaching job at Missouri to go to South Florida, his successor was Cohen.

"I moved into his old apartment," Cohen said.

"Once I graduated, he took over my spot in right field," McCraney said in a telephone interview from Maui.

There's a chance another McCraney and Cohen will be on the same team next season. McCraney's son, Matt, a senior shortstop at St. Anthony, has been invited to walk on at MSU.

"He's been going to Mississippi State baseball camps since he was a little kid," McCraney said. "Although they couldn't offer any scholarship money, they encouraged him to come on over as a recruited walk-on. It's going to be a tough road for him, but I'm excited he's going to go."

The McCraneys will attend the UH-MSU series.

Of course, it's all history for the 2009 Rainbows and Bulldogs, who will develop their own stories for the future as they open a four-game series starting tonight at Murakami Stadium.

For the Rainbows (3-5), the series is another test against a nationally ranked opponent. The Bulldogs (7-1), coming off their worst season at 23-33 since they went 16-24 in 1975, are ranked 26th by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.

UH will go with the same four starting pitchers as last weekend. Jayson Kramer (1-1) opens tonight with Nate Klein (0-1) going tomorrow. Then it's either Jared Alexander (0-0) or Matt Sisto (1-1) Saturday with the other starting Sunday. Alexander pitched four shutout innings in his season debut against Minnesota last week. It was his first appearance since May 2, as he tended to a tender elbow.

Hawai'i is still looking for Alex Capaul (six runs in four innings) and closer Josh Slaats (five runs in 2 2/3) to show their true potential. Hawai'i needs to develop five starters for future four-game conference series during which they will be midweek non-conference games.

"You have to keep getting them out there, but they're going to have to perform," Trapasso said. "We need them to and we're hoping they'll get more aggressive and control the ball down in the zone."

Cohen is only certain of left-hander Tyler Whitney (0-0) pitching tonight. He said it's possible the other three starters for the series also will be left-handers.

Cohen likes the experience of traveling here, but is concerned about the return home because of anticipated jet lag. The Bulldogs start SEC play next weekend.

"I wish we had another week before we get into SEC play," Cohen said. "I don't have a lot of experience dealing with this, but they say it (jet lag) hits you going home more than it does when you get out here."