Don’t focus too much on the record, they’re better than that. ADVERTISING Don’t focus too much on the record, they’re better than that. It was the simple conclusion from the University of Hawaii at Hilo baseball team that closed out
Don’t focus too much on the record, they’re better than that.
It was the simple conclusion from the University of Hawaii at Hilo baseball team that closed out the home season with a doubleheader loss Wednesday at Wong Stadium.
The four-game series was swept by Pacific West Conference leader Dixie State (35-10-1, 24-7-1 in the PWC) handing the Vulcans their 11th straight loss.
“Even though the record doesn’t show it, this was great team to be a part of,” said Kamalu Kamoku, one of eight graduating seniors who played their final games as Vulcans at Wong Stadium Wednesday in 12-4 and 4-0 losses. “This team was together in a way that we weren’t last year, and that culture we built here, that will carry on.
“That’s what we can take from this,” he said, “we came together as a team, we believed in each other.”
Kamoku pitched the last game, scattering eight hits against the best hitting team in the conference, one that knocked out 59 base hits in this four-game series that dropped the Vulcans to 8-28 and 8-26 in conference play.
One bad inning was all it took. In the Dixie third, a double, triple, walk and a single squeezed around an error was all the Trailblazers needed to plate four runs.
UHH was able to get just three hits in the game.
Now comes the final four, that is, the last four games of the season, a conference doubleheader followed by a non-conference doubleheader at Hawaii Pacific next week. Two wins would signify a milepost of sorts, as last year’s squad finished with 9 wins.
“Of course we want to top that,” said coach Kallen Miyataki, “but in one way, I don’t care about that as much as I just care about being better. We want to get better, that’s all I want.”
To do that, he must have hoped the returning players listened to the words of senior catcher Aalona Amimoto, who said after the last game, “Trust the process, it will bring you success.”
That was a lesson learned by all the seniors, Michael Suguro, Jacob Grijalva, BJ Freitas, Austin Arakaki, Cole Nagamine, Eric Vega — only a junior in eligibility, but he’ll graduate in June — and Amimoto and Kamoku.
It has been incremental, but the success has been there in the way they played, if not the victory totals.
Dixie State 12, UH-Hilo 4
Not an enjoyable start to the day for the Vulcans, who managed another early lead before the machine-like offensive assault from the visitors rolled them over.
“We can’t stop them,” Miyataki said after watching his club fall to its 10th consecutive defeat. “They’re just good, they overshadowed us, but we’re going to try to get them one more time.”
The conference’s leading hitter, Phil Steering — who else? — provided an early spark for the Vulcans with a two-out double down the line in left and came around to score on Cole Nagamine’s single.
That lead lasted until the Trailblazers were up in the second, when two singles and an infield error gave them a 2-1 lead. Luke Van-Artsen singled in Austin Forney, who had reached after beating out an infield hit to ties the game again, 2-2, after two.
Justin File, a 6-foot-1 right-hander who is being looked at seriously by pro scouts for the upcoming major League Baseball draft, kept the UHH bats quiet for most of his 5 1/3 innings. He allowed three earned runs, scattered seven hits and there 96 pitches, topping out at 92 miles per hour on a few occasions.
“We played them all,” said Miyataki of the top teams in the conference, “and they are definitely the best hitting team, they’re the best defensive team and they have the best pitching.
“They’re in our league, but they’re out of our league, if you know what I mean,” he said. “They have too much of everything for us.”
Late Tuesday
Dixie State 9, UH-Hilo 5
UHH got three first-inning runs but that was most of their offensive output for the gamer while Dixie State based out a dozen hits, giving it 33 hits in the doubleheader, and went on to the win.
A 3-0 lead was turned into a 4-3 deficit, but the Vulcans capitalized on base hits from Segovia, Nagamine and Forney to even things at 4-4, but that was the end of the fun for the home team.
UHH kept trying to get back in the game after the Blazers chased Drew Ishikawa with four runs in the sixth. The Vulcans stranded 9 runners on the base paths.
