Casey Spanish isn’t surprised few have taken the Kansas University baseball team seriously. And that’s fine with him.

“People haven’t expected too much of us in the past,” said Spanish, a senior infielder from Savage, Minn. “We can sneak up on a lot of people. This year, especially.”

Spanish will help inaugurate the Ritch Price era when the Jayhawks open the season in Hawaii. The Jayhawks will play a doubleheader tonight against Hawaii-Hilo, then meet the Vulcans in afternoon twinbills Saturday and Sunday.

After spending eight seasons at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, Price took over the KU program last summer after Bobby Randall resigned.

“He’s fiery,” Spanish said of his new coach. “He’s really intense, but a great coach and a great teacher.”

After starting last season in a terrible slump, Spanish finished the year with a .291 average, two home runs and 26 RBIs. He had 40 hits in his last 103 at-bats, a .388 clip.

Spanish joins several proven Big 12 Conference bats in the lineup — among them junior Ryan Baty (.341 average, six homers, 51 RBIs in 2002), senior Kevin Wheeler (.320-8-42) and junior Matt Tribble (.318-6-36).

Several of them have speed, too. Baty swiped 15 bases a season ago, while Spanish stole 12 in just 15 attempts. Both Spanish and Baty are 6-foot-4, 215-pounders, making their fleet feet even more surprising.

“We’ve got remarkable team speed for how physical we are,” Price said. “You can help people become better base runners, but if they can run it’s a huge asset.”

On the flip side, the Jayhawks’ pitching is unproven.

KU’s top three starters from a year ago — Jeff Davis, Dan Olson and Jake Wright — all departed, leaving a whole lot of questions in what is generally regarded as the most important piece to a winning puzzle.

“Anytime in the game of baseball,” Price said, “you have to pitch well to play well.”

Price doesn’t have an experienced mound staff and he doesn’t have many right-handed hurlers. In fact, among KU’s top five pitchers, only junior Chris Smart, who went 1-3 with a 5.85 ERA in 2002, is right-handed.

Two left-handers — senior Pat Holmes and junior college transfer Ryan Knippschild — will start in today’s doubleheader, the first of 62 regular season games on the schedule.

The Jayhawks hope they will qualify for the Big 12 Conference tournament, too. The top eight teams in the regular-season standings will advance to Oklahoma City in late May.

“I pride myself on being a positive person,” Price said, “and I believe we’re going to make the Big 12 tournament our first year. This team is right on the bubble of being good, if I can convince them of that.”