By MATT GERHART Tribune-Herald sports writer ADVERTISING Joshua Wong and Steven Riddle have endured their share of rough patches and they’re ready for a few more. As co-captains on a University of Hawaii at Hilo baseball team with a slew
By MATT GERHART
Tribune-Herald sports writer
Joshua Wong and Steven Riddle have endured their share of rough patches and they’re ready for a few more. As co-captains on a University of Hawaii at Hilo baseball team with a slew of new faces, it’s now their job to try and make the transition as smooth as possible.
Keoni Manago is gone, and the three-time All-Pacific West Conference selection took his .394 average with him. Four-year starter Kekoa Lee must be replaced, too, along with 10 other former Vulcans.
For reinforcement, coach Joey Estrella signed 10 players from either junior or four-year colleges, many of whom will be in the starting lineup today when UHH opens its season at Hawaii Pacific with a 2 p.m. PacWest doubleheader.
“In theory, you’d like to recruit high school seniors so you have longevity with them and train them and get them in the program and to understand the program and the philosophy,” Estrella said. “But we needed to go the JC route to be able to get ourselves to be competitive, and I think we did a pretty good job. We’ll count on them to give us some experience and leadership.
“When you lose the guys we lost, you’re sort of rebuilding, but I think we can surprise some people.”
Coming of a 21-25 season, the Vulcans return a solid nucleus to their batting order in Wong, Riddle and Jonathan James, a junior first baseman who hit .356 last season.
Wong, a junior second baseman hit at a .303 clip last year, while Riddle was the only Vulcan named to the preseason all-PacWest team. The senior will spend a lot of time at designated hitter and be counted on to drive in runs from the middle of the order.
UHH lost its top four run producers, but Wong said the team can fill that void by being opportunistic.
“I don’t know if we can make up for the power,” Wong said, “but we can make it up in other ways. Moving runners, doing our job, getting a lot more hits with runners on base. Instead of a three-run home run, we can string hits together.”
However, when UHH didn’t hit in bunches last season or suffered any type of adversity, they often lost confidence — especially on the road, where it was just 6-15 last season — and fell into slumps.
“Every time something went bad we shut down as team,” Wong said. “We just have to learn to pick each other up.”
Because the Vuls likely won’t be able to rely on home runs to get victories and possess only average team speed, Estrella will stress smart, mistake-free baseball — which could prove to be a challenge for a team still trying to jell.
“Playing with a young team, we’re going to have a lot of downfalls that come with that. As a captain, the best thing you can do is tell guys not to dwell on losses,” Riddle said. “You can’t change a loss, all you can do is learn from it.
“At the same time, we have a lot of returning talent to help manicure these guys. I think not only this year are we going to have a good year, but I think in the next few years you can expect good things.”
While Estrella leaned heavily on junior college recruits, he’s high on true freshman Keenan Kaluau. The Kamehameha-Maui graduate will play shortstop and bat leadoff.
Junior Brad Fairweather will start at center field, and he’ll likely be flanked by two other transfers, junior Will Thayer and sophomore Austin Cusack.
Junior John Abreu, a Mililani graduate who last played at City College of San Francisco, will start at third, and yet another transfer, Greg Cleary, is slated to lead a catching platoon that also includes senior Daniel Reitz and junior Tyler Nitahara.
Wong is the only player on the roster who’s hit a home run in a UHH uniform, but Estrella is hopeful that the mainland transfers will be able to better adapt once the team leaves pitching-friendly Wong Stadium.
At times last year UHH hitters had a tendency to hit with an uppercut when it played in hitter’s parks on the road, but that’s a recipe for disaster at Wong Stadium.
The way the ball dies at sea level and in the humid air in Hilo compared with how it carries at hitter’s havens such as the ones at Grand Canyon (Phoenix) and Dixie State (Utah) can’t be overstated, Riddle said.
“(Wong) is unreal, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “We definitely have a different game to play here, but at the same time it affects those teams when they come here.”
Senior co-captain Tyler Simao knows all about the pitfalls of pitching on the mainland. After leading the team with four wins last season, the right-hander will assume the role of staff ace and try to improve on a 5.56 ERA while eating up innings by staying around the plate.
“I just have to keep my pitches down,” he said. “On the mainland, I let them get up a lot. Just got to keep them down and let them get themselves out on ground balls and what not.”
Estrella said he likes the starting five in the rotation — senior Bryan Raines, senior Dane Kinoshita, sophomore Seamus Yoneshige and junior Gavin Kinoshita — but worries about depth should there be injuries.
Raines (3-1, 3.82 ERA) started four games last season, while Dane Kinoshita spent last season as a reliever and spot starter. Yoneshige moves in from the bullpen and gives UHH a left-handed starter and Gavin Kinoshita, a transfer from Cal State Monterey Bay, is Dane’s younger brother.
Two more transfers — juniors Patrick Fletcher and Larry Valdez — are vying to be the closer. Freshman Ryan Rice, a 2010 Hawaii Prep graduate, could see time out of the bullpen.
The two other Big Island products on the roster are senior outfielder Tyson Goo, a Kamehameha-Hawaii graduate, and junior infielder Jeremy Kaaukai a 2004 Hilo High graduate.
Riddle hit just a point below .300 last season, but he says he’s past the point of thinking about personal goals.
“I’ve got one year left. More than anything, I want a good winning season and to end the year right,” he said. “We’re going to have a lot of nail-biters. A lot of good bats, a lot of good arms. We’re going to be a scrappy ballclub.”
