Numbers are deceiving, but feelings go right to the spirit and the bone, just ask the Hawaii-Hilo baseball team.
The Vulcans, despite their record of 7-17 and 7-15 in the Pacific West Conference, are having fun and believing in themselves and if you’ve seen these guys play the last few games you could probably understand why.
They came back again Monday night with a three-run, walk-off home run by leading hitter Phil Steering in the bottom of the ninth inning carrying them past Fresno Pacific (13-16, 10-10 PWC) , 7-4.
The win gave them a 2-1 series lead over the Sunbirds prior to the final, seven-inning game of the series – a 5-1 Vulcans loss. Still, the win in the first game confirmed a certain belief that has spread throughout the team.
“To be completely honest with you,” said Steering, the junior first baseman, “this feeling right now is not one I’ve had in all the time I’ve been here. There was a point we all got together as players and we said, basically, ‘Whatever happens, good, bad or otherwise, let’s make this a team that never quits, never hangs its head, never gives in,’ and we’ve been doing that, we’ve been picking each other up.”
Steering has a personal reflection on that from the first game.
“I was doing too much, I was being selfish (at the plate),” he said. “I have to say, the most important thing I’ve learned is that your next at bat is always, always more important than your last at-bat.”
In his first three plate appearances, Steering flied out twice and hit a ground ball to third base. When he came up in the ninth with runners on first and second after a hit batter and a successful bunt by Kyle Yamada, Steering settled in against Sunbirds closer Matt Bergandi.
“We train hours in the cage for moments like this,” Steering said, “I was confident. I knew he liked the fastball and they had been pitching me inside consistently, and that’s what I got, inside belt high.”
He turned on it and sent it deep into the dark night far beyond the left field fence, over the scoreboard, raising both arms skyward as he left the batter’s box. He was mobbed by his teammates following his tour of the bases, but his was just the last winning act of the game.
It started off well with Drew Ichikawa making just his second start of the season and pitching 6 1/3 innings, keeping the Vulcans in the game.
“(Coach Kallen Miyataki) texted me this morning and said ‘Get ready, you’re starting,’ so that got my attention,” Ichikawa said. “My only plan was to throw a lot of strikes and try to keep us in the game. We have a resilient team, we feel like we’re getting better and this is pretty cool, these kinds of games.”
It was also fun in a different way, for freshman Brandyn Lee-Lehano, who started throughout his high school career at Kamehameha and continued in that role earlier for the Vulcans, but Monday night, his coach had an idea.
“It was just a hunch,” said Miyataki. “Brandyn has a nice breaking ball he’s been working on, he’s put in a lot of good work, he’s paying attention, getting better and they hadn’t seen him, so I went with it. I told him all I wanted was two outs.”
That’s exactly what he got with two ground ball outs, to give the Vulcan bats a chance.
Again, that little opportunity was all they needed.
UHH went against its standard form this season with a first inning run and an early lead. Coming into the game, they had been outscored 33-20 in first innings but they reversed that pattern after left fielder Kyle Yamada reached base when he was hit by a pitch, Cole Nagamine singled him to third and advanced to second on an error in left field.
With two outs, Jake Grijalva hit a ball deep in the hole to shortstop and Nagamine was called out at third on a disputed decision, but Yamada had already crossed the plate for the run.
Ichikawa was enjoying his longest outing of the season, just his second start, breezing through six scoreless innings until Hunter Villanueva broke things open with leadoff home run to left field in the seventh. With one out, following an infield error, Ichikawa hit the No. 8 batter and Miyataki went to the bullpen. Thomas Warren got the second out, walked the next batter and out came Miyataki again.
Deric Valoroso Jr. allowed a two-run single and then got the final out, but the Sunbirds were up, 3-1.
They added another in the eighth when Villanueva doubled — he had a home run, triple and double but not a single — and was knocked in by a single from Joey Gallegos.
Trailing by a couple runs late in the game?
That’s been another trend for the Vulcans lately, one that has seemed to energize them. They got two back in the eighth when Steering singled, moved up after Grijalva was hit by a pitch, then Austin Forney doubled both runs home to make it a one-run deficit.
Just what they needed for a ninth inning rally.
Sunbirds 5, Vulcans 1
For the final game of the series in the next to last homestead of the season, Miyataki had a change of heart on his starting pitcher.
“I’m gonna’ shake it up,” he said between games, “let’s see how they do.”
His plan in the seven-inning game was to start closer Kamalu Kamoku, whose seven appearances this season have all been out of the bullpen for a total of just 15 innings pitched.
Miyataki was “hoping for four, but I’ll take three,” innings from the senior right-hander, and he got what he needed.
Kamoku worked through three innings, starting out with a base on balls to leadoff batter Michael Warkentin, and, as so often happens, he eventually scored after stealing second, advancing to third on a ground ball out and scoring on the second out of the inning, another ground ball.
The Vulcans got that one back in a similar fashion after their leadoff batter, Dylan Sugimoto, took a walk, moved up on ground ball to first, stole third and scored on a wild pitch.
It became 4-1 in the third when Kamoku allowed a walk that was followed by two doubles, and that was a night’s work completed for the rare starter. On came Eric Vega who had a tough outing in the first game of the series, but he threw only 34 pitches on Saturday and was ready to throw another 50 or 60, if needed.
Another walked turned into a run for the Sunbirds in the sixth when Travis Anderson walked, went to third on a single and scored on an infield out.
Trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth, the Vulcans needed to make something happen, but they were hitless at that point, though it was messy no-hitter by freshman Nic Boatman, who walked four and delivered a wild pitch through five innings.
It was Steering, once again, with the bat that changed things in the sixth. This one didn’t win the game, but it was deep fly to dead centerfield barely contained by the fence. Steering made it all the way to third, arriving in an unnecessary head first crash that seemed to jar his left shoulder, but he stayed in the game and was stranded on third.
A leadoff single provided some hope but a double play ended the threat and closed out the series with a split in the four games.
