By BART WRIGHT ADVERTISING By BART WRIGHT Hawaii Tribune-Herald When they hear the term “sleeper” applied to largely untested high school recruits, a lot of college coaches will find a way to change the subject and continue looking for something
By BART WRIGHT
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
When they hear the term “sleeper” applied to largely untested high school recruits, a lot of college coaches will find a way to change the subject and continue looking for something that feels more like s sure thing.
When Hawaii Hilo baseball coach Kallen Miyataki hears the term, he perks up, as if to say, “Oh really? Tell me more.”
That happened recently prior to Miyataki receiving an official letter of intent from St. Louis High School senior Dylan Spain, a 6-foot-4 pitcher with a level of potential that had been clouded by injury and illness during his last year with the Crusaders.
“He’s definitely the kind of kid we want to take a long look at, and when we did that, I felt he was worth brining in to our program to see what we can do,” Miyataki said this week of Spain, one of four recruits destined to the Big Island to play for the Vulcans. “We survived a bad season (9-33), that actually turned into something good right at the end.
“We have re-evaluated how we do things, we tweaked our process a bit and I think we’re on firmer ground now looking ahead,” he said. “Some of these guys have a chance to make us better.”
Spain and a teammate John Kea, a utility player who batted .333 (15-for-45), and can also pitch a little bit out of the bullpen, are the two in-state recruits, while Alec Telles (Santa Margarita High School, Orange County, Calif.), and Austin Forney (infielder/pitcher, St. Charles (Missouri) Community College), will be coming from the mainland.
“The way we played at the end of the season (splitting four games with Hawaii Pacific), really lifted the spirits and gave us some hope,” Miyataki said. “We had some long, involved conversations on our last (mainland) trip and the approach we took seemed to work for everyone.
“These recruits give us some more size and, we think, a little more production at the plate.”
Forney batted .359 with 2 home runs and 27 RBI for St. Charles CC, which struggled through a 10-40 season and 1-15 in Division 16 of the NJCAA. Telles is 6-1, another pitcher and designated hitter with a fastball velocity in the mid-80s according to two scouting reports. His team was 8-7 and 20-10 overall this season.
George Gusman, Spain’s coach at St. Louis, thinks Miyataki will be pleased with what he gets from the Oahu school.
“He’s a lanky kid who hasn’t touched what he can do, not yet,” Gusman said of Spain, “his best days are definitely ahead of him. He has a lively fastball in the upper 80s, a pretty decent slider and he’s working this summer on his changeup.
“He’s really under the radar,” Gusman said, because he had some elbow issues last summer that sort of knocked out and kept him on the shelf, even at the start of the season and then when we got going, he got the flu like a lot of our kids and threw him back again. He came on strong right at the end, but not a lot of people know about him.”
The St. Louis coach suggested Kea will also be a benefit for the Vulcans.
“Hilo’s going in the right direction, they had a lot of work to do there,” Gusman said, “but they know what they need and they are good coaches, I think a kid like Kea, who can run and hit .300 for you — plus he can pitch — can really be a help for those guys. He’s very coachable and he’s going to fit right in.”
