When Sam Spangler visited here his senior year in high school with his travel team, he could see the potential attending the University of Hawai'i might bring.

The Albuquerque, N.M. native said Hawai'i's climate and diversity were similar to home. Yet, the school was far way enough to test his will out of his comfort zone.

"I wanted to go somewhere where I wasn't home, so that I could grow up and mature," the Rainbows' relief pitcher said. "Hawai'i is a great place for that."

The sophomore left-hander has applied his growth emotionally to the ball field as well. After redshirting in 2006, he went 1-3 with a 6.75 earned run average last year as a red-shirt freshman. After spending the summer season with the Santa Barbara Foresters, he returned to school with a clearer focus.

The 6-foot-1 Spangler worked on his strength by hitting the weights and increasing his protein and carbohydrate intake — the money-strapped, college student-friendly Blazin' Steaks is his favorite restaurant these days — to bulk up from 175 pounds last season to about 200.

"He's always had good stuff," UH coach Mike Trapasso said. "With each year, his stuff has gotten better. He's matured physically. Just maturing emotionally and understanding that pitching is about pitching ahead. It's about getting on top of the baseball."

Spangler has been simply lights out the first two weeks of the season. In three appearances, he has totaled 10 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and two walks, while striking out 12. The only run that has scored against him was unearned. On the Rainbows' four-game road trip to Minneapolis last week, Spangler didn't allow a run in outings of 3 1/3 and four innings, both against Minnesota. He got a save in UH's 6-2 win and earned Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week honors, rare for a reliever.

Besides bulking up for strength, Spangler changed his motion a bit.

"We dropped it down a dash," Trapasso said of Spangler's arm angle. "He was more of an over-the-top guy. We got him to a more three-quarter type. It helped (him) command-wise. It helped him get in front better, so he could get on top of the ball and extend better. When he was over-the-top, he would miss up in the zone a lot. He'd get a little shoulder tilt going and miss up or down."

The new angle has allowed Spangler to keep his pitches down. He said he started getting into the groove during workouts just before the season started.

"The entire spring, I felt really, really good," Spangler said. "After that first series, every outing I felt like I've been cruising. Even when I get in jams now, it's not like things just fall apart. I can recover and still get guys out after that.

"I'm keeping it down in the zone. The side of the plate is important, but I keep it down in the zone. That's the biggest part."

Although successful in long stints in relief, Spangler said he likes his role and doesn't mind not being a starter.

"If the team needs me to start, I'll start," he said. "(It's) no big deal. I'm comfortable here."

STAYING WITH SAME FOUR

Trapasso said he will use the same four starting pitchers from last weekend for this week's Mississippi State series. Jayson Kramer and Nate Klein will start the first two games, respectively, but Trapasso is pondering whether to switch Jared Alexander to Saturday ahead of Matt Sisto.

The Bulldogs (7-1) come here ranked 26th in Collegiate Baseball newspaper's top 30 after starting the season unranked. They just took two from Nicholls over the weekend. One game was rained out and the series finale was declared a no contest by the NCAA after MSU originally claimed a forfeit win.

The Bulldogs' new coach is John Cohen, who took over for the legendary Ron Polk.