Phillip Steering looked skyward at a pop up in front of him down the line between first and home, called ball, camped underneath it and then, in his words, “Bang,” he was on the ground.
It wasn’t the perfect ending that UH-Hilo’s 10 seniors had hoped for, but how else could it have ended?
Steering managed to fit his four-year college baseball experience, adversity, body blows and all, into nine innings Sunday at Wong Stadium, where Hawaii Pacific blanked the Vulcans 12-0 on senior day.
“I feel like today just kind of summed up Hilo in a sense,” Steering said. “Actually, it was gorgeous, so except for that part.”
“A whole lot of obstacles are going to be thrown at you,” he said, speaking in contexts broad and specific. “No matter what happens, you always have to pick yourself up off the ground.”
The senior all-Pacific West Conference first baseman did just that in the top of the first inning after the Sharks’ Codi Santana bizarrely collided with Steering as he tracked a pop fly near the line. Santana was called out for batter’s interference and was taken out of the game as Steering was attended to on the field.
“I was in pain in the sense of getting the wind knocked out of you,” Steering said. “My chest hurt, just my whole front area. I don’t think it was intentional.”
And he wasn’t coming out of the game, at least not yet.
“Only if I had two broken legs and two broken arms,” he said.
The loss secured UH-Hilo’s 26th consecutive losing season, but the Vuls (20-25, 16-20 PacWest) can match their highest win total since 2011 with one victory in their three-game season finale at Hawaii Pacific next weekend.
With the way left-hander Joshua Muneno was efficiently dealing Sunday for the Sharks (20-27, 13-25), if the game wasn’t over when Hawaii Pacific scored six runs in the fourth to go ahead 8-0, it was done an inning later when Marc Sauceda hit a two-run home run, scoring senior Ryan Torres-Torioka, a Konawaena graduate, ahead of him.
The silver lining of the rout was it allowed UHH coach Kallen Miyataki to not just play all 10 seniors, but he was able to take all of them out of the game in spots where they could get ovations from the crowd.
“I wanted to do something different and I felt this was something nobody else does,” Miyataki said. “It’s important for these guys who put in their time to get their recognition.”
Senior Jonathan Segovia, a 2013 Keaau High graduate, drew the loudest applause when he exited in the top of the seventh, running in from his spot in right field and hugging every teammate he could find along the way.
Segovia hit his first career home Saturday night and finished with six hits as the Vuls split a doubleheader, and he was 1 for 3 on Sunday and takes a team-leading .371 average into the final series. Steering is at .361.
Senior left-hander Morgan West’s first appearance of the season was a brief one. West only recently began throwing since recovering from an injury, and he came on in the eighth to throw a pitch.
Miyataki said one trait that sets this senior class – losing pitcher Drew Ichikawa (2-2), Kila Zuttermeister, Edwin Stanberry, Reese Kato, Deric Valoroso, Cole Nakachi and Edison Sakata and the others – apart is their “togetherness.”
“This is a start, and as we progress and move forward, hopefully, this class set the tone,” Miyataki said.
Torres-Torioka finished 3 for 5 with a double and three runs scored, much to the delight of the 20 or so family and friends he had supporting him in the stands. His senior day is next Sunday, but he said his final game at Wong was noteworthy in its own right.
“I think of all of the hard work that I put into this program,” said Torres-Torioka, who is working on his masters degree in business administration. “It was a good opportunity to play in front of my family that has supported me, and it’s always good to come back and play at home.”
Pumping the strike zone, Muneno (3-2) needed only a minuscule 69 pitches to weave a six-hitter, two hits apiece allowed to RJ Romo and Kyle Yamada. Muneno struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.
Steering said the Vulcans put good swings on the ball, but he did a double take when told of the pitch total.
“I’ve never heard of that,” he said. “It’s amazing.”
Steering has taken his bumps and bruises the past four years, but he’d probably use the same adjective to describe his time in Hilo.
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