While awaiting the eligibility of two more pitchers, University of Hawai'i coach Mike Trapasso is optimistic for his team's season-opening three-game series against Santa Clara.

Tonight's opener is 6:35 at Les Murakami Stadium. UH students are eligible for free tickets for each game of the series.

"I'm good," Trapasso said. "I wish we were full strength. We still might, but if not, it will give other guys opportunities to show what they've got. We're going out there, try to play hard and execute."

Right-handers Josh Schneider and Derek Tarapacki — both junior college transfers — are awaiting eligibility clearance that could come as early as today. If Schneider gets cleared, he will start Sunday behind tonight's starter Ian Harrington and tomorrow's starter Mark Rodrigues, both left-handers. Santa Clara has a predominantly right-handed hitting lineup.

As in previous years when a Sunday starter wasn't set in stone, Trapasso used who was available after the first two games. It was usually someone who hadn't thrown or someone with low pitch counts from the previous games. Junior college transfer Nick Rhodes, a left-hander, and right-handers Matt Daly or Tyler Davis are candidates, Trapasso said. Daly and Davis had multiple roles last year. They started, pitched in long relief and closed.

Meanwhile, Santa Clara, picked to finish sixth in the eight-team West Coast Conference, is stacked with pitching.

"Our strength is our pitching depth," Broncos coach Mark O'Brien said. "I'm not going to say we have (Bob) Gibson, (Nolan) Ryan and (Sandy) Koufax coming back, but we have about 450 innings coming back, which is amazing. Last year at this time, we had 40 innings coming back."

Owning a chunk of those innings is tonight's starter, sophomore left-hander Matt Wickswat (9-2, 3.54 earned run average). He allowed 82 hits in 84 innings, which was second-highest on the staff last year. He had 66 strikeouts to 22 walks.

"He's an intelligent pitcher," O'Brien said. "He can throw to both sides of the plate. He does a good job of controlling the running game. He does throw strikes and competes very well."

Wickswat looks to be an appropriate match for Harrington (9-3, 3.99), picked as the preseason Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year. Wickswat is from Bellevue, Wash., and Harrington transferred here from Bellevue Community College.

Harrington has won his last five decisions (not including the Alumni game in which he pitched six scoreless innings of relief).

Tomorrow's game pits Rodrigues (4-2, 4.66) against freshman right-hander Nate Garcia, the Central Coast Section Player of the Year last season at Bellarmine College Prep.

Santa Clara is scheduled to start sophomore right-hander Justin Kuehn (3-6, 6.75) Sunday.

The Broncos have several up-and-coming players in sophomore center fielder Matt Long (.336, 23 RBIs), also a freshman All-America pick, and junior designated hitter Evan LeBlanc, the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Player of the Year who came from Yavapai JC.

While the Broncos appear to have the pitching, O'Brien said he will be breaking in some new players.

"We have some guys who haven't played in a Division I game yet that will be in the lineup this weekend," O'Brien said. "However, we feel pretty good about those guys. We think they're going to be good players."

Meanwhile, UH lead-off hitter Jorge Franco's turf toe "is close to 100 percent," Trapasso said. Franco, who played in the Alumni game, is good to go.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.