By BART WRIGHT
By BART WRIGHT
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
The end of a nightmarish 1-8 road trip finally behind them, they returned home to get ready for a short flight to Oahu this weekend to face, of course, their nemesis.
Welcome to Hawaii Hilo baseball, circa 2016.
“Its been pretty rough, but nobody’s given up,” said Vulcans (3-19 in the Pacific West Conference, 4-21 overall), coach Kallen Miyataki. “There are no excuses, we’ve been in position to win a number of games, but physical things — a lot of throwing errors — have cost us.
“It would be nice to catch a break here or there,” he said, “but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for us this year. I told (the team) after we got back, that we’re going to play the hand we’re dealt. We have 17 games to make something out of the season.”
Hawaii Hilo plays a doubleheader at Hawaii Pacific Saturday, with the Sharks starting Rico Garcia (4-3, 3.12 earned run average), who has a 3-0 record in three starts against the Vulcans, including two back-to-back nine-inning efforts last year in which he allowed a total of three earned runs off seven hits in those 18 innings, while striking out 25 and issuing only two walks.
“He is our nemesis there’s no question about it,” Miyataki said. “We’ve faced him three times and he has owned us, so it would be a big step if we can get locked in and find a way to beat him, just once.”
Miyataki will start David Moody (2-4, 5.03) in the opener against Garcia and despite his somewhat inflated ERA, Moody has been one of the pleasant surprises for UHH this season. He had a rough outing two weeks ago at Fresno Pacific, allowing seven earned runs, but if you toss that game out, Moody’s work this season figures out to a 4.07 ERA over 33 1/3 innings, not bad at all.
“Really, we’ve been surprised to see this team develop,” Miyataki said. “Preseason, I really believed that fielding would be our strength, I really liked what we were seeing getting ready for the season, but fielding has been our weakness. I thought after (senior right-hander Jordan) Kurokawa, we would be scrambling with our starters, but our pitchers have carried us. It’s too bad we haven’t been able to help them out more.”
Kurokawa (2-4, 1.80), a likely selection in June’s Major League Baseball draft, ranks third in the conference in ERA , first in fewest hits allowed for pitchers with at least 40 innings of work and his 41-17 strikeouts-to-walks ratio is among the conference’s best. He will start the second game Saturday, then the two teams will play a non-conference doubleheader Sunday.
The Vulcans have committed a PWC worst 37 errors in their 22 conference starts, something that has figured in several games that could have gone the other way. They were up 5-0 at Dixie State in the fifth inning when a couple home runs and an error — and another error later — opened the doors for an eventual loss.
In another game at Dixie State, Moody took a 3-2 lead into the eighth, finished with seven strikeouts, one walk and just three hits, but a late run sent the game into extra innings when the Red Storm won.
“It makes you wonder after a while,” Miyataki said. “We played in some of the windiest conditions I’ve ever seen (at Dixie State), and I swear the wind was blowing out about 35 mph when they hit a couple out, then we got up and the flags went limp. I asked guys, ‘Am I seeing something?’
“It’s been difficult,” he said, “but we aren’t done yet, we need to keep pushing to see if we can turn this around a little bit.”
UHH would have to go 18-1 the rest of the way to finish with a 22-22 record and avoid extending its collegiate losing streak to 24 straight years that covers the NCAA Division I and II and NAIA levels.
It’s Miyataki’s third season. UHH was 11-36 last season. The Vulcans finished 14-33 in 2014 after Miyataki replaced longtime coach Joey Estrella.
‘Bows hit road
The UH Rainbow Warrior baseball team (13-15, 2-1 Big West) will make its first road trip to meet a Big West Conference foe, in a three-game swing at UC Davis (8-15, 1-2 Big West). The Rainbow Warriors and Aggies will face off in the conference series, Friday through Sunday, at UCD’s Dobbins Stadium.
UH senior shortstop Jacob Sheldon-Collins shows no signs of slowing, batting a Big West third-highest .394, 13 RBIs and 16 runs. Rookie catcher Kekai Rios continues to rise, ranking 10th in the league with a .342 average, putting up 16 RBIafter being forced into action due to a starter injury to Chayce Ka’aua.
Speaking of Ka’aua, he hit .273 against UCI with four RBI and a run against the Anteaters. The 2013 Hilo graduate broke the middle finger of his right throwing hand on Feb. 19 against New Mexico.