After they’d finished off a sweep of Academy of Art but before they gathered for a final chat, UH-Hilo’s baseball players went to their locker rooms to hand in their uniforms.
When they returned to the field at empty Wong Stadium, the dress code was casual. Most wore shorts and T-shirts, and some were shirtless, as Kallen Miyataki gave a brief talk that drew applause before they disappeared into the night
“We spend so much time breaking everything down and putting stuff away (at Wong), one of my coaches is already heading back (to campus) to do laundry,” Miyataki said Saturday night.
And with that wash comes a clean slate for the Vulcans, who have a 13-day layoff after winning three of four against the Urban Knights to get back to .500 in the middle of the nine-team PacWest standings. The season still could go up for down, considering they end the year with eight games on the road against PacWest front-runners Point Loma and Azusa Pacific.
Still, it wasn’t too long ago that UHH’s 22-13 mark already would have been cause for celebration.
“We don’t give up, we just keep on coming back,” Miyataki said. “That’s our trademark.
“We made corrections and our pitchers really banged the zone, especially tonight with (Christian) DeJesus and (Aaron) Davies. I think our hero tonight was (Ty) Honda.”
After Davies allowed a leadoff single in the fifth of a tie game, Miyataki summoned Honda, a redshirt freshman right-hander, to the mound. Academy of Art (9-22, 3-13) elected for a sac bunt for the first out of the inning, and then the Waiakea alum struck out the next two batters, bridging the gap to senior closer John Kea. Honda earned his second win of the season when Mason Campbell hit a double to score Casey Yamauchi, who led off the fifth with a walk. Campbell came home to score on an error.
“(Honda’s) been doing it the whole season, hats off to him,” Miyataki said. “In crucial situations, you expect the pitcher to bang the zone, and Honda’s been tremendous for us. He’s been my go-to guy.”
In 19 1/3 innings covering 11 appearances, Honda’s allowed 16 hits and six walks with 19 strikeouts, trimming his ERA to 3.32.
He has a baseball pedigree – his father, Chris, played at UHH – and he was one of the Warriors’ aces his senior season in 2019, but he wasn’t always a likely candidate to hold down a high-leverage role in an NCAA Division II bullpen.
“I didn’t plan on playing college baseball,” Honda said. “It wasn’t until right before states my senior year that Coach Kal talked to me. Prior to that, I was a just planning on going to college.”
But his easy-going personality comes in handy during stressful situations on the mound.
“Nothing really bothers me that much,” he said.
Honda leaves the past in the past, which is a key component of Miyataki’s “30-second rule.”
“After that, we flush it away,” the coach said.
The Vuls needed a sweep after losing the second game of Friday night’s doubleheader 9-1. UHH won the series opener 7-3 on Friday, getting seven strong innings from James Yamasaki (2-3) and an 11-hit attack that included four doubles. Yamauchi was 3 for 4, and Campbell had the first of his three multihit games in the series.
In the nightcap, the Urban Knight’s Collin Carriger stifled the Vuls in a seven-hitter in which the only run they scored was was unearned. Eric Peterson, Kekaulike Kalua and Ryan Cho had two hits each, but UHH committed six errors. Left-hander Kyle Alcorn (1-2) allowed four unearned runs in 6 1/3 innings.
Academy of Art’s bid for a series split got off to fine start in Saturday’s second game when Liam Rizzo solo home run staked his team to a 3-1 lead.
UHH tied it in the fourth without the benefit of a hit, using a hit by pitch, an error, Bradyn Yoshida’s sac fly and a wild pitch to score two runs. In the sixth inning Lucas Sakay doubled, Yamauchi was hit by a pitch and each scored on Campbell’s double.
Working his second inning, Kea gave up two runs in the seventh but nailed down his second save of day and ninth of the season in what was the latest chapter in UHH’s tales of resiliency
It’s become their “trademark” and team personality.
“It starts with a few guys, not really filling captain roles, just guys who seize opportunities and speak up,” Honda said. “Not an individual person, just a great group of guys.”