By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Makana Canda provided a solid bat and veteran leadership to headline a Konawaena baseball team that cleaned up with Big Island Interscholastic Federation postseason honors.
The senior third baseman batted .370 and helped the Wildcats reach the Hawaii High School Athletic Association state tournament for the fifth straight time.
Canda was named the BIIF West Division Player of the Year, in a vote by the league’s coaches.
“Makana brought a lot of experience to the team,” Fujino said. “His batting was really solid. He was one of our clutch hitters, but at the end of the season he started getting a lot of walks because the opponents were trying to pitch around him.
“I also looked to Makana for leadership and he tried to get the other boys going.”
Canda is joined on the first team by five teammates: catcher Evyn Yamaguchi, second baseman Royce Torres-Torioka, shortstop Jarett Kitaoka, outfielder Domonic Morris and utility player Ryan Torres-Torioka.
All are juniors except for Yamaguchi and Royce Torres-Torioka; both are sophomores. Canda was more than just the team’s No. 3 hitter on a team that had just two seniors; Seth Hamilton was the other senior.
“I’m pretty happy with how things turned out this season,” Canda said. “Since I was a senior, it was special to get to go to states and play with some of these same guys I’d been playing with for a long time.
“I also tried to show some leadership as a senior and in the end, the young guys started to listen more. We were a close team and I had a lot of fun with the guys.”
Other first-team members were Kealakehe’s Teaotai Buehler, a junior pitcher; Kohala’s Mana Akima, a senior outfielder; Hawaii Prep’s Kai Fink, a senior first baseman, and Jayse Bannister, a senior outfielder; and Honokaa’s Haku Daniels, a senior outfielder, and Dylan Shiraki, a senior pitcher.
Kamehameha, a member of the East Division, captured the BIIF Division II championship and finished fourth at states. Kona crushed Waialua 15-0 to claim fifth.
Canda is looking at his baseball options for next year and has talked with coaches from Simpson College in California and Arizona Western.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet, but I’ll just see what happens,” he said.
Fujino was voted the BIIF Coach of the Year.
He praised his Wildcats’ strong team chemistry, and pointed out that several players stepped up at various times to spark the ballclub.
“They were tight and that helped,” said Fujino, who highlighted Morris’ hot hitting late in the season. “He had a great second half hitting the ball hard. Domonic was always working on his swing and it really paid off. It was also nice to see all the boys play well in the state tournament, especially those last two games.
“I’m pretty happy with how the boys did this year. We had only two seniors on the team, so we have a good returning nucleus for next year. With the experience the boys picked up this year and maturing as seniors, we should be strong.”
Kamehameha loses its pitching ace, Kaimana Moike, and it’s the same for Honokaa with Shiraki and HPA with Bannister. Kona returns its two top pitchers in Ryan Torres-Torioka and Kitaoka.
“Honokaa and HPA will be tough again next year,” Fujino said. “Honokaa and HPA gave us good games all year. I know both of them lose a lot of their seniors, but they have some young talent coming in and we expect them to be tough.”
