The UH-Hilo baseball team started out 9-2, which was wonderful. But after two non-conference series against San Diego Christian and Minnesota Crookston, they went 0-2 in a PacWest road trip against Hawaii Pacific, which was not wonderful.
Sometimes, stats do tell the whole story, and it was an ugly one for the Vulcans, who committed six errors in the two PacWest losses. The Sharks made three errors.
“We got exposed,” UHH coach Kallen Miyataki said. “They bunted and played the short game on us. We made a lot of errors and didn’t play well in the first two games. The next two we hit the ball like we are supposed to.
“They threw their two best against us, and we didn’t make adjustments. It’s not like it’s something we haven’t seen before. They changed speeds on us. They threw their harder guys, and we hit him.”
It’s correction time for the Vulcans (11-4, 0-2 PacWest) who host Fresno Pacific (7-3, 0-0) in a four-game PacWest series starting at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Wong Stadium.
The Sunbirds top pitchers are junior right-hander Garrett Cooper (1-0, 6.28 ERA, 14 1/3 innings), junior right-hander Jared Aguilar (0-1, 3.94 ERA), 16 innings), and junior right-hander Justin Fuson (1-1, 1.23 ERA, 14 2/3 innings).
The top hitters are senior first baseman Matt McGrady (.381 batting average, 1.200 OPS), freshman center fielder Khalid Johnson (.361, 1.106), and junior third baseman Andrew Valdez (.353, .896).
“It should be a fun weekend,” Miyataki said. “The two teams are about the same. They’ve got two pitchers, more than one. We’ll give it our best shot and take it one game at a time.”
In the first game, an 11-6 loss against HPU, James Yamasaki gave up four run in 2 2/3 innings. The bullpen allowed seven runs over 4 2/3 innings.
In the second game, an 8-0 loss, Kyle Alcorn pitched six innings of three-run ball. He allowed an unearned run, but three Sharks combined for an eight-hit shutout.
Jamieson Hirayama pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief over the first two days, while the rest of the bullpen struggled.
“We had some bright spots but a lot of bad spots, and we couldn’t overcome that,” Miyataki said. “We addressed those issues our last days of practice. It’s more mental issues, and I didn’t properly prepare them enough. That’s my responsibility.”
Not every coach points the finger at himself first. But that’s one of the reasons Miyataki stopped the NCAA record for longest losing streak at 26 years in 2019.
He also found the best spot for HPU transfer Joe Gallagher, who batted 5 for 6 with four RBIs in a 17-6 win in the last game of the series.
Gallagher (.339, .961 and team-high 18 RBIs), Casey Yamauchi (.421, 1.030), Eric Peterson (.452, .997), and Jaryn Kanbara (.310, .961) have carried the offense.
“We switched up Gallagher to the No. 2 spot,” Miyataki said. “We thought he’d see more fastballs knowing Casey is going to run. That helped. Jaryn Kanbara is coming around, and Kobie Russell is putting the ball in play. If those three hit, we can score a lot of runs.
“Our pitchers still have to throw strikes and be around the zone. If we eliminate our mistakes, we’ll be fine. We’re excited for the conference games.”