If anything, the 2009 season will be remembered as the year the Rainbows slugged their way into the record book.

For the first time in school history, Hawai'i has more than two players with double-digit home runs to help break the previous school record of 58 home runs set in 1983. The Rainbows have 63 through the end of the regular season. They could continue to add to that total as long as they survive in postseason.

Moreover, the long ball has provided a boost not usually associated with Rainbow baseball over the years

"You score however you can score," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "But this team's best weapon, offensively, has been the home run. No question about that. But it's all phases. You have to be clicking."

Junior first baseman Kevin Macdonald leads with 14 homers, followed by junior third baseman Vinnie Catricala's 12 and freshman center fielder Kolten Wong's 11.

For most of the visiting Western Athletic Conference teams here for the tournament, double-digit homers by their players might be routine. But not at pitcher-friendly Les Murakami Stadium. Homers at other parks are just routine flyouts in Manoa.

While Macdonald and Catricala developed their power through maturity and workouts provided by strength coach Tommy Heffernan, Wong came in from Kamehameha-Hawai'i swinging from the heels.

"It's just third-year (guys) finding out their swing," Trapasso said. "They have a better understanding of what they can do. But we knew Kolten had some power."

Wong got a jump start on the two veterans with a three-homer game March 15 against Loyola Marymount. He became only the fifth player in UH history to hit three in a game, but the first to do it in front of the hometown crowd.

"I was just hoping to hit one (homer) this year," Wong said. "But they just kept coming. I just got the right pitching and thankfully, I have the guys in front of me and in back of me."

Wong, who started the season batting leadoff and then second, moved to fifth in the order from March 27, the day after the Rainbows were no-hit by Coastal Carolina's Cody Wheeler. He has been protected by Landon Hernandez (six home runs), who is tied for 10th on the UH career list with 15 homers, and most recently Sean Montplaisir (five home runs).

"Hitting fifth gives me time to study the pitcher and see what he has," Wong said. "I have Vinnie and Mac in front of me and Landon behind me; it gives me that cloak so I can just come along and get my hits here and there. Everybody contributes. It makes you want to play that much better."

Wong said the key to his power comes from his legs.

Catricala, who entered the season with seven career home runs his first two seasons, can't explain the extra outburst.

"Coach Meij (hitting coach Keith Komeiji) has taught us the same thing ever since I've been here," he said. "A lot of us just bought into it. A lot of credit goes to him. Letting the ball travel to us and using the torque of the bat, basically.

"We work the middle 385 (in reference to the center-field distance marker). That's basically what we've been doing, working to the middle of the field."

Macdonald credits Heffernan's strength program. Macdonald entered the season having hit just two home runs.

"I don't think it's one particular thing," Macdonald said. "I've worked harder in the gym this year. I've gotten bigger. I might have moved my hands back a little more than last year, closer to my head so I have a little more leverage.

"Tommy (Heffernan) does a great job in the weight room. We lifted four times a week in the morning during the fall, so that gave me a chance to get stronger."

Hernandez was surprised to learn he was 10th on the career home run list. The past two seasons, his home runs came late in the season; he has four home runs in the past two WAC tournaments. This season, he has hit all of his six home runs by April 7. His wrist injury may jeopardize the senior's chances of increasing his total.

"I haven't tried to hit home runs," said Hernandez. "They just happen."

Old-timers will claim the 1983 team hit its homers in a bigger park. The original fence distances — 340 feet down the lines, 380 to the alleys and 400 to center — were 15 feet farther back than when the new wall was erected before the 2001 season. Only 17 of the 58 homers were hit at the original version of Rainbow Stadium (sans concrete grandstand) in '83. That season, the Rainbows also played at Aloha Stadium, where they hit 10 homers. Two others were hit at Wong Stadium in Hilo, while the other 29 were hit at Mainland fields. They hit the bulk of their road homers at home-run happy parks such as New Mexico's Albuquerque Sports Stadium (8), Texas-El Paso's Dudley Dome (8) and at Brigham Young (6).

The 2009 'Bows hit 30 home runs at home and 33 at Mainland fields. It's not known how many cleared the original wall, which still stands, at UH. The Rainbows also played at some of the WAC's most home run-conducive parks, such as Peccole Park at Nevada (6), Presley Askew Field at New Mexico State (9), and Pete Beiden Field at Fresno State (11).

While debating each team's accomplishments is part of the national pastime, when the '09 team set the record, it conjured memories of the program's past. Joey Meyer set the school single-season record with 16 home runs (four at UH, three at Aloha Stadium, nine on the Mainland) and Glenn Braggs followed with 11 (four at home, two at Aloha, one at Wong, four on the Mainland). Greg Oniate hit five of his seven home runs at UH, the most at home. Meyer went on to play for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1988 and 1989 with 18 career home runs. Braggs played in seven big league seasons with the Brewers and Cincinnati Reds from 1986 to 1992 with 70 career home runs.

The program's history isn't lost on Catricala.

"It's an honor," Catricala said. "Look at all the guys who had the record. They were big-time guys."

Perhaps one day future Rainbows will say the same thing about the 2009 team's home run record.

"It's great to be a part of history, to say that I was there when it happened," Catricala said.