These are happy days for University of Hawai'i pitcher Harrison Kuroda.

When he made his second appearance of the season in Sunday's 11-3 loss to San Francisco, it was just his third outing of his career.

Was it mentioned that this is his fourth season with the Rainbows?

Some players are grateful for being blessed with good arm speed to throw 90 mph fastballs. Some are grateful for bat speed to hit the ball 400 feet. Kuroda is grateful that he is still a Rainbow.

"It has definitely been a long road," Kuroda said. "I'm glad the coaches stuck with me. They could've easily canned me, but they stuck with me after 2 1/2 years of physical therapy."

Kuroda graduated from Mid-Pacific Institute in 2004 as one of the top college prospects in the state. He was The Advertiser's Co-Player of the Year and the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Player of the Year in 2004. The hard-throwing right-hander signed to play for UH.

But during the summer before his freshman year at UH, Kuroda dislocated his right shoulder sliding into a base while playing summer ball. He hoped to let it heal on its own, so he redshirted the first year.

But he hurt the shoulder again the following summer, this time requiring surgery. Having used his redshirt, he had to sit out the 2006 season as he rehabilitated his shoulder with Pat Ariki at Sportsmedicine Hawaii.

Although he still was not 100 percent, he finally made his collegiate debut March 3 of last season, mopping up a 20-3 win against Chicago State. He pitched an inning, allowing a run.

"Last year, I was in the upper 70s mph," he said of his fastball.

With continued rehab, he has regained strength to where he can hit the mid to upper 80s.

"It was definitely rough because you can't contribute," Kuroda said of sitting out all that time. "I wanted to pitch, but my body wouldn't let me. But all in all, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Yeah, I wanted to play, but I had to get healthy first."

Getting healthy was the key. In his season debut in Saturday's first game of the doubleheader against USF, he faced five batters, hitting one, but getting the other four batters on infield pops, three of them in foul territory in 1 1/3 scoreless innings in UH's 9-6 win.

On Sunday, he was extended to 3 1/3 innings. After 2 1/3 shutout innings, he allowed two walks, a hit batsman and an RBI single in his final inning of work.

The 5-foot-9, 190-pound right-hander is a junior in athletics eligibility. Next year will be his senior year. Since he did sit out 2006, he would have to apply for a medical hardship to get that season back, he said.

Rainbows coach Mike Trapasso said he thought Kuroda's career was through.

"I told people when Harry came back from his surgery that (with) elbow surgery guys come back from those all the time," Trapasso said. "But shoulder surgery is 50-50 at best. Most don't come back. If they do come back, their arm angle or arm action has changed and that's what happened to Harry ... But he stuck it out and kept working."

Kuroda said he had a more violent arm action in high school. But after the surgery, his arm action has been more fluid. Kuroda said the UH coaches changed his mechanics to accommodate his motion.

"They broke my mechanics down and got me to where I don't have to put as much effort into throwing," Kuroda explained. "I think the coaches did a real good job at kind of tweaking (my delivery)."

For good measure, Kuroda will be one of the 26 players UH is taking to the Coca-Cola Classic Baseball Tournament in Surprise, Ariz.

There has been one change already. The Rainbows will open the tournament 1 p.m. HST Thursday against Northern Illinois (0-0), a late entry. Hawai'i was originally scheduled to play Portland.

Hawai'i will play No. 6 Arizona State (3-0) on Friday. The Rainbows play two games Saturday with No. 8 Michigan (3-0) at 9 a.m. and Portland (2-2-2) at 1 p.m., both HST.

Hawai'i's games will be played at Surprise Stadium, a spring training facility for the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. Other games of the tournament will be at ASU.

The tentative starting rotation for UH is Matt Daly, Jared Alexander, Alex Capaul and Josh Slaats, Trapasso said.

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.