It’s not uncommon for softball opponents to call timeout to talk damage control when UH-Hilo slugger Bailey Gaspar walks to the plate with runners on base.
What was different about the April 21 road game against Notre Dame de Namur was the strategy session discussed by Gaspar and Vulcans coach Callen Perreira.
“Me and him were talking,” Gaspar recalled, “and he said, ‘Do you want to do it?’ ‘I was like, ‘Yeah I want to do it.”’
Her form was good, as was the result. Gaspar squared, got the ball down and she got the runner home like she had so many times before, just not like this.
“Definitely something I can cross off my bucket list for college,” Gaspar said. “I got a picture of it, it was really good. It was a decent bunt, I was surprised.”
One successful bunt tucked toward the latter stages of a career that has been defined by one big blast after another.
“(My teammates) knew I was eventually going to do it, but they were pretty excited when I did it,” she said. “Pretty cool.”
One of the most prolific careers in the respectable annals of Vulcans softball will almost assuredly come to a close when UH-Hilo (29-15, 17-9 Pacific West Conference) visits Chaminade (10-31, 6-23) at noon Saturday in their regular season finales. Ranked 10th in the West Region, the Vuls’ chances of climbing the requisite two spots to reach the postseason are considered slim to none.
Gaspar is sure to be spotted on all-PacWest and all-region teams in the coming weeks, but her last licks come Saturday as she tries to add to her stature as the program’s career home run leader (34).
“She’s done a lot of wonderful things, a lot of walk-off (homers) and kept us in a lot of games,” Perreira said. “Just a great competitor.”
Gaspar’s season, she enters Saturday hitting .399 with 14 home runs and 47 RBIs, and career, Gaspar will leave Hilo second in career average on the plus side of .390 and her 138 RBIs to date rank third, sort of make Perreira kick himself that the Vuls couldn’t find their way to the postseason in the past two years since he returned to UHH.
On the other hand, “To win 30 games (would be) a great milestone for this team,” Perreira said. “To finish 10th of 32 teams in the region, that’s great for the program.”
No excuses he said, but seven canceled games due to the wet weather, four at home, didn’t help the cause.
“Rainiest season I can remember,” said Perreira, whose first stint as Vuls coach covered 1990-2009.
“Not what we wanted this season,” Gaspar said. “A lot of rainouts, and we had to go to Kona.
“We take it, we work with it, and we don’t let us get it down.”
Gaspar, a native of Vancouver, Wash., compiled all of her gaudy numbers in just three seasons after transferring from AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Iowa.
Her father is from Hawaii and she has family on Oahu, so she came to Hilo to “get to know my culture,” she said.
Asked whether she leaves the Vulcans program in a better place than she found it, Gaspar turns the question around as if it were a middle-of-the-plate fastball.
“I think I’m leaving a better person than when I came here,” she said, “I’ve grown so much, not only as a player, but as a person.”
Three other Vulcans seniors are set for their final games Saturday. Shortstop Mari Kawano, who made all-PacWest as a junior and his hitting .341 this season, right-hander Cyanne Fernandez (15-5, 2.79 ERA) and outfielder Kacie Freudenberger, who’s played in 32 games and is hitting .254.
“They are all competitive,” Perreira said. “They all want to win, which is what coaches want. I’ll miss them.”
How wacky was the weather this season?
The Vuls didn’t have a traditional senior day. It came away from home April 15 at Kealakehe High, and Gaspar capped off one of the contests with her third walk-off home run in 2018.
She’s set to graduate after the fall semester with a degree in business administration, and before heading back to Washington to pursue a masters degree, she plans to remain around the program next season as well.
It’s just too hard to stay away from the game – especially now that she can bunt.
“I love this team,” she said, “not necessarily playing the games, but being together all the time and having so much fun.
“I definitely think the program is going in the right direction. We can only go up.”