Extra layers of clothing for those cool Southern California nights weren’t what took up the most room in Kallen Miyataki’s luggage when it came time to pack.
It was all the arms UH-Hilo’s baseball coach brought with him.
The Vulcans will have 14 pitchers at their disposal for an eight-game road trip that begins Monday at Concordia-Irvine and wraps up at Biola with a fourth doubleheader in five days.
“I will use them all if I need to,” Miyataki said.
The Vulcans (17-6, 6-4 PacWest) ride a five-game winning streak into their series against Concordia’s Eagles (9-8-1, 3-1), who will have had a full week to sit and stew after losing four in a row in a home-and-home against Point Loma. The Vuls played three days on the mainland last season for the PacWest pod series, but this is their first such traditional road trip since 2019. They’ve flourished at home so far, going 15-4 at Wong Stadium.
“It should be interesting, the parents can finally get to see the kids play,” Miyataki said. “We have Californian kids.”
One of them is sophomore left-hander Aaron Davies (3-0, 2.82), who earned another starting assignment March 5 with a seven-inning, three-hit shutout of Fresno Pacific, a 1-0 win that started UHH’s win streak. Davies, of Palos Verdes, Calif., will the get the ball in the second game of Monday’s doubleheader after sophomore right-hander Christian DeJesus (1-1, 5.09) starts the opener.
Neither DeJesus nor Davies pitched during the Vulcans’ four-game sweep of Holy Names last week at Wong. Miyataki relied on spot starts by Conor Meehan and Barron Holtz and his bullpen Wednesday, then started James Yamasaki and senior left-hander Kyle Alcorn on Thursday.
He pulled Alcorn (1-1, 3.38) after five solid innings so he will have four days’ rest to pitch Tuesday, but Yamasaki (1-2, 4.38) was another story. The freshman right-hander scattered 10 hits in nine innings of two-run ball, unleashing 107 pitches in a game the Vulcans won in the 11th on Jaryn Kanbara’s solo home run.
That was UHH’s fifth walk-off win this season, and on two other occasions the Vulcans took the lead in their final at-bat.
“I have no idea,” Miyataki said when asked about his team’s penchant for the dramatic. “They don’t give up. “Credit to them.”
Is it sustainable?
In a nutshell: Who cares.
“All we’re doing is trying to do the best job we can, and whatever happens, happens,” Miyataki said. “It’s been happening for us, so I can’t grumble.”
The Vulcans’s team ERA of 3.67, second-best in the PacWest, will be tested on the trip, especially at hitter-friendly Biola, which is third in the conference in home runs.
Playing all but four of its games at pitcher-friendly Wong, UHH is hitting for average, at .298 it’s second in the league, but not slugging percentage, its .383 ranks sixth.
By the time he packs his bags to return to Hilo, Miayataki hopes to have a better handle on how to use all 14 of those arms.
“This is probably our biggest series, this first series,” he said. said. “We’ll figure out a pitching rotation when we get to Biola.”
