The UH-Hilo baseball team campus field is damp, the weekend forecast calls for rain and all the marbles are pushed in the middle.
The Vulcans (0-3) host Hawaii Pacific (0-4) in a pair of doubleheaders at noon Saturday and Sunday to kick off their PacWest pod season.
“All our marbles are right there. Hopefully, it stays like this. We’re praying,” coach Kallen Miyataki said on a sunny Wednesday.
Unlike the UHH softball team, there are no other fields available for baseball. Wong Stadium’s backstop is being fixed and will take three more months. The field in West Hawaii is unplayable.
Then there’s always maintenance work for Miyataki and his players.
“The top rail of the outfield fence has to be yellow, so we had to buy spray paint,” he said. “We’re trying to make the field playable as possible. What we’ve done as coaches and players, it looks pretty good until you walk on it.
“We had a scrimmage on Sunday, and you could tell we’re rusty. We haven’t been able to catch ground balls, and it showed. But we’ll make the best of it.”
Boy, do they ever. The Vulcans catch tennis balls in the gym. They play with rubber balls in right field, the driest spot in the outfield. And they hit in the batting cage.
It’s a job requirement for a UHH baseball or softball coach to know the weather forecast websites. It’s a force of habit for Miyataki, who checks them daily.
“It depends on which weather map you look at, it’s sunny until Friday, and then it’s 40 percent chance of rain,” he said. “We’re hoping that’s a mistake. I told Dallas (Correa, HPU’s coach), if you want to play, we’ll play. Our boys are antsy. They’re ready to go, ready or not, here we come.”
Junior left-hander Kyle Alcoran (0-1, 6.75 ERA) draws the Game 1 start, left-hander Cameron Scudder (0-1, 1.93 ERA), a junior college transfer, goes in Game 2, right-hander Jonathan Buhl (0-0, 33.75 ERA) gets the nod in Game 3, and Game 4 will depend on how much Brandyn Lee-Lehano is used.
Miyataki sees a bunch of potential in Scudder, who’s 6 feet 4 and 205 pounds, and Buhl, who’s 6-4 and 215 pounds.
Scudder has a big-bending curveball, and Buhl will pitch better with unpredictability.
“Scudder has to find himself,” Miyataki said. “Buhl was tipping his pitches, and we talked to him about that in January. When he looked at the TV replays, he came to us, and we told him, ‘We’ve been telling you that.’ At this level, if hitters know what’s coming, they’ll hit you.
“Scudder is a rarity for us, a 6-4 lefty, who throws 88 mph. He’s a big plus for us. I expect him to fare well. He’s got a good breaking pitch. That’s his strike pitch. When he gets his fastball going, it explodes.”
Two of the more impressive hitters have been a pair of new faces, senior graduate student Trey Yukumoto, son of assistant Garrett Yukumoto, a former HPU coach, and redshirt freshman Brandyn Yoshida.
Yukumoto, who played at HPU, is hitting .444 with an .888 on-base percentage while Yoshida is batting .286 with an .572 on-base clip.
Both have similar styles at the plate and in the field. They swing at strikes, battle with two strikes and are solid fielders, Yukumoto at third and Yoshida in center field.
It’s a message to the rest of the team that there’s no favoritism. It doesn’t matter if you’re a returning starter. Work and produce and you’ll get a fair shot at playing time.
“Yoshida has really worked hard. I’m happy he’s come around,” Miyataki said. “He’s earned his shot. As long as he hustles and does the right things, it’s his job to lose, and it makes our team better. Rustin Ho will be hungry to get his position back.
“Trey is a smart player. We don’t know where to put him, at third or second. Casey (Yamauchi, the shortstop) likes him next to him, too.”
For a budget-conscious team like the Vulcans, coach Yuks has been an invaluable member, not only for his knowledge but his recruiting resources.
He lives and works on Oahu. He flies to Hilo after work, and saves the Vulcans a ton of money scouting on Oahu.
“He only comes on the weekend, so it’s manageable,” Miyataki said. “He saves me trips to Honolulu. He does a great job for us. We have talent on the Big Island, but he gets to see the Oahu talent. So if there’s a game, I tell him, ‘Don’t come. Go to the game.’
“He’s got contacts in Arizona. I got Southern Cal, and Jensen (Sato, an assistant) has Northern Cal. We went after Tyler Dyball (pitcher from Kaiser), but he decided to walk on at Hawaii. Now he’s one of their closers. We’re trying for the top dogs on Oahu. We tell them if something doesn’t work out, Hilo is a great place and a home away from home.”
