Rainbow Warrior star Donahue cousins to suit up together for last time in Manoa

HONOLULU (KHON2) — The red-hot University of Hawaii baseball team will hit the field at Les Murakami Stadium for the final time during their 2024 season when they host Cal State Fullerton on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.

The Rainbow Warriors (34-16, 17-10 BWC) have won 15 of their last 17 games, led in part by the combination of the cousins Donahue. Jordan, a junior shortstop, is hitting .359 on the season while Kyson, a senior first baseman, is hitting .310 with a team-leading five home runs.

“It’s been nothing short of what we expected for this year. This being our third year with Rich (Hill) we have a lot of veterans on our team and a lot of just really good players that know how to play the game and this was a year that we expected to do really big things,” Jordan said Wednesday morning during their live appearance on Take2.

The two embarked on a similar circuitous route to Manoa. Jordan graduated from Damien Memorial School and played at Oregon State before transferring back home when head coach Rich Hill took the Rainbow Warrior job in 2022. Kyson, a Punahou alum, started his career at Arizona before coming back in the same transfer class.

“It was a super easy transition honestly just because we knew so many people coming in and we were talking before we even got the opportunity to come in about how special it would be to play together so just being alongside a bunch of local kids and playing in front of our family every night is special,” Kyson said.

Although they are cousins and grew up on the same island, distance didn’t allow them to become as close as they’ve become in college.

“For sure in high school we weren’t really that tight,” Jordan said. “I was from Mililani he was in Kahala so we didn’t really see each other much but coming here we got really tight and this year we’re roommates so we’ve gotten a lot closer and our families have also gotten a lot closer,”

The bond has grown between the legendary sports family. Jordan’s dad Timo played at Washington and coached the 2008 Waipio Little League World Series team that featured Jordan’s brother Christian as a star player. Kyson’s dad Conan played football at Oregon State.

“Plenty of family and even on the road trips I think they’ve been up to almost every single road trip we’ve been on so they’re always hanging out always meeting early before the game and coming in together,” Kyson said.

They’ve become hometown favorites with their prowess on the field for the past three seasons, headlining a lineup full of local boys playing for Hawaii.

“I can remember Jordan and I coming to games when we were young and watching Hawaii play against Oregon State and Oregon when they would come in and just putting ourselves in that perspective when we were once kids and realizing how much of an impact we have is pretty special,” Kyson added.

Jordan, who has wowed some Major League Baseball scouts with his play this spring, is excited to have the opportunity to come back and play for his senior year if the draft doesn’t come calling.

“There’s nothing like playing at the Les and it’s going to be a bittersweet moment with all of those seniors leaving,” he said.

For Kyson, the emotions are going to have to stay behind the goal of winning and hopefully a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, which would be the program’s first appearance since 2010.

“It’s going to be pretty emotional I’ve been thinking about it since the opening night. I don’t know what to expect. I’m going to try to block it out, try to focus on winning because there’s still something to play for at this point in the season.”

The first pitch on Thursday is scheduled for 6:35. All three games will be broadcast live on Spectrum Sports.