In college baseball, most especially at the Division II level, change is a constant anywhere you go. ADVERTISING In college baseball, most especially at the Division II level, change is a constant anywhere you go. There are no trades for
In college baseball, most especially at the Division II level, change is a constant anywhere you go.
There are no trades for that big time stopper in the bullpen or that leadoff guy who can transform the game when he gets on base. At the University of Hawaii at Hilo, as is the case everywhere else, change is a process.
People seem to understand that, but it’s painstaking and time consuming because at UHH, it happens from the inside out, strapped to the process of development. Change comes gradually and yes, part of it is losing closer, which will never be a battle cry anywhere, it just happens to be part of the process.
Kallen Miyataki, coach of the UHH team that is 8-24 and 8-22 in the Pacific West Conference, heading into its final home series Tuesday against Dixie State (31-10–1 and 20-7-1 in the PWC), knows all about the process. He lives it.
“Is it frustrating?” Miyataki said, “yes it is, I thought we’d have a better record than what we have right now, but you almost have to be here, with us to realize how far we’ve come.
“I compare it to someone with all the money in the world who can get whatever he wants, and that’s fine,” he said. “But in our world, what if you aren’t that guy? What if you come to us with nothing? What if you don’t have the experience, what if you never had to face a 92 or 93 miles per hour fastball, with a little slider that comes in and looks just the same?
“The biggest thing we do here is try to succeed in the mental game. We are making progress, we know it, we can feel it, our players talk about it, but on the outside, it’s not so easy to see.”
Last year’s Vulcans, with fifth year senior Jordan Kurokawa (drafted by Philadelphia), managed a 9-33 record. This year’s edition, lacking such an attention-getting draft choice, has eight wins with eight remaining games to surpass last year’s mark.
“It’s important,” Miyataki said. “I told you at the start of the season we’d be better this year and we are, but we need that kind of tangible example to get beyond and then try to keep climbing.”
The Vulcans will do that Tuesday against Dixie State, in a virtual tie for first in the conference with Azusa Pacific, both of those squads one game ahead of California Baptist (22-10).
The first of Tuesday’s two nine-inning games is scheduled to start at 3 p.m., with junior Eric Vega (1-3, 6.57 earned run average) taking the mound. The second game? Miyataki can’t say, because from this point on, he’s approaching it like every game is the last game.
“I’ll go wherever I think I have to go to get a win,” Miyataki said. “I know (freshman Dylan) Spain (1-4, 4.26), will start a game on Wednesday, but besides that, we’re just trying to win one game at a time.”
The Vulcans have the conference’s leading hitter, Phil Steering (.433), but Dixie State (ranked 13th nationally), has the conference’s top hitting team, a group that averages .347.
Still, UHH was emboldened a bit by playing Cal Baptist to two close defeats in its last two road games, losing by one run in each.
“We had ‘em all the way to the end in both those games,” Miyataki said. “In the (9-8), walk-off homer game, we pretty much had it won, we had a good pitch on (CBU’s John Glenn), low and outside, but he threw the bat at it and got it over a short porch (left field), for the home run. I don’t think he even made a complete swing, but there it was, a little off-field homer.
“Stuff happens,” Miyataki said. “We did a lot of things right in the first part of the season, but when you throw in 20 errors, it sort of wipes everything else out. But we are still a better team.”
The growth is gradual, but this year’s seniors have seen it and felt it. These will be the last games at Wong Stadium for seniors Mike Suguro (catcher), Jacob Grijalva (infielder), Aalona Amimoto (catcher), Cole Nagamine (infielder), BJ Freitas (infielder), Austin Arakaki (outfielder), and Kamalu Kamoku (pitcher, DH).
Heading into the final four, then four more at Hawaii Pacific, the Vulcans have a chance to etch their improvement in wins and losses in the record books, but there’s also the prospect of playing the potential league champion while trying to make that statement.
“They’re for real,” Miyataki said. “I talked to coaches (on the last road trip), and they said these guys can do it all. They have the best hitting team in the conference, they pitch, they run, they play defense, you have to be at your very best to have a chance.”
Is that a motivation? Is there an interest in being the ones who might ruin a season for a potential conference champion?
“Oh, hell yes,” Miyataki said, smiling. “We’ve done that the last couple of years to HPU, if we can knock (Dixie State) them off and ruin their day, well, that’s what we want to do.”
If they’re at their best, they won’t be winning any championships in the final home games of the 2017 season, but for a team doing all the little things to get better, determining who won’t win the title would be satisfaction enough.
