From a physical standpoint, nobody is going to suggest the baseball team Kallen Miyataki coaches at the University of Hawaii at Hilo is head and shoulders above the competition. ADVERTISING From a physical standpoint, nobody is going to suggest the
From a physical standpoint, nobody is going to suggest the baseball team Kallen Miyataki coaches at the University of Hawaii at Hilo is head and shoulders above the competition.
If anything, the Vulcans have to look up a bit at most teams they play In the Pacific West Conference, but that isn’t their problem. They have players who can swing the bat, other who can move runners up with a well-placed bunt and their pitching seems to be competent, at the least.
It’s the mental part of the game that has dragged them down in the early season, and it was on full display in the first game of a double header Saturday night at Wong Stadium when the Vulcans fell to Academy of Art, 6-5 on a ninth inning base running trap that caught UHH.
In the second game, Dylan Spain scattered six hits for a shut out in a 5-0, seven-inning win for the Vulcans (2-4, 2-2 Pacific West Conference).
Tied at 5 in the first game, the Urban Knights (7-13, 3-3 PWC), had runner on first and third with two outs when coach Dan McDermott sent Izac Bauer to second on a steal attempt. Catcher Michael Suguro threw to second baseman BJ Frietas as Erick Luna, who led off the inning with a base on balls, broke from third base. Instead of throwing to the plate, the Vulcans got Bauer in a rundown and tagged him out after the run scored.
Hawaii-Hilo had runners on first and third in the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t push a run across home plate in a game that included eight errors, evenly split between the teams, and there were eight walks, five by Art U.
“We didn’t want it, they didn’t want it and at the end, we made the last mistake and they took it from us,” said Miyataki. “We go over that steal play all the time, but you have to visualize it in your mind, you have to see it coming and then do what you’ve practiced.
“It would have been a different game from the start if we hadn’t made so many blunders,” he said, “but let’s look at the positive side, too. we messed it up right at the start, but (starting pitcher Eric) Vega settled down, we worked our way back in the game.
“I’m proud of them for that, they could have quit, but they gave themselves a chance to win by coming back. Proud of them for that.”
It was the third consecutive win for the Urban Knights and coach Dan McDermott.
“It was probably a fun game to watch, but we both could have played better,” McDermott said. “My goodness, what kind of a schedule is that they have? They haven’t even played 10 games yet so I don’t know where they are in that respect.
“They gave us a lead, then we reciprocated later on,” he said. “I told my guys, ‘This is a very cruel game, we deserved to win, we outhit them, I liked our pitchers, but it was that close, you know?’ We just made one more play at the end.
“But what you saw was the trademark of these Hilo teams, they are a group of warriors, we’ve played probably twice as many games as them, but they will not quit.”
In reality, it was the 18th game for Art U and just the fifth for UHH, which figures out more than three times the number of games for the visitors.
The Urban Knights benefitted from botched routine plays by the Vulcans in the first inning after Vega set things in motion by walking leadoff batter Alex Fernandez. Mike Maleski hit a ground ball to the right side that got past second baseman Jaron Manago and then went through right fielder Marcus Calamese. Erick Luna reached on an error by Manago and then cleanup hitter Izack Bauer hit a slow ground ball to shortstop, the position vacated as UHH guessed wrongly that Bauer would be stealing. Shortstop Jake Girjalva had moved to cover second and the ball rolled harmlessly into the first few feet of the left field grass. Marcian Reichel singled up the middle and it was 3-0, with two home team errors and no outs.
By the time Vega got a double play ball and retired the last batter, eight Urban Knights had been to the plate and they had a 4-0 lead.
UHH got two runs back in the fifth when Grijalva led off with a base on balls, designated hitter Micah Carter moved him up with a single before a fielder’s choice by Marcus Calamese allowed Girjalva to reach third. BJ Freitas score one run on a fly ball to center, Michael Suguro brought home the second run with a base hit.
Art U struck back with one of its own on a walk and error and a base hit to make it 5-2, but the Vulcans mounted an error-filled rally in the bottom of the sixth to edge back to a 5-4 deficit after the Urban Knights made errors on three consecutive batters to plate two runs without the benefit of a base hit.
After seven, it was a 5-5 game thanks to the RBI double by Kyle Yamada that scored Dylan Sugimoto who led off the inning with a walk.
Vulcans 5, Urban Knights 0
The second, seven-inning game was a different story for UHH as it used three first-inning walks mixed in with a single and two double for a 4-0 lead in the first after trailing by that same score in the first game.
Phil Steering’s double to right center scored Dylan Sugimoto, who led off the inning with a base on balls and sent Kyle Yamada, who also walked, from first to third. After a walk to Austin Forney, catcher Aalona Amimoto singled in Yamada, then with two outs, BJ Freitas doubled down the left field line scoring two more but Amimoto was thrown out at the plate and an ensuing scuffle at home over the collision resulted in Amimoto’s ejection.
The Vulcans made it 5-0 in the third when Suguro, who replaced Amimoto behind the plate, singled with two out, then designated hitter Micah Carter doubled him home.
Spain (1-1), a freshman righ-hander, worked out of a minor jam in the fourth when he got the first out, allowed two singles, then got a strikeout and ending he inning with a fly ball to center. He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.
Notes: Miyataki said he plans to evaluate freshmen pitchers Brandyn Lee-Lehano (KSH) and Alex Telles (Santa Margarita, Calif.) in competitive situations, expecting one will separate from the other … the win improved Art U’s record against right-handers to 2-7… The first game loss was the fourth in a row for UHH. They committed 10 errors in those games.
