Miliani, Pearl City Set To Clash
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usOn paper, the Mililani baseball team’s OIA Red West schedule would seem as demanding as anyone’s in the league, beginning with Saturday’s 11 a.m. season-opening double-header on the road versus two-time defending champion Pearl City.
With all due respect to the Chargers, however, Mililani has spent the last three weeks playing against some of the top teams in the state in their own right, so neither team is apt to be in awe of the other on Saturday.
“If you want to be the best, you have to play the best,” said first-year head coach Mark Hirayama, whose team played ILH powers Kamehameha (three times), Saint Louis (twice) and Mid-Pacific (twice). “It (the preseason schedule) has been great for us. It’s worked out through the tournaments that we’ve been able to play quality programs - teams that are in the state tournament every year.”
While this Saturday’s doubleheader won’t necessarily make or break Mililani’s chances to make the state tournament in May, a win would still be a huge lift for the program, not to mention the impact it could have on the league race. While not downplaying Saturday’s matchup, Hirayama said the emphasis is largely on his own team.
“Pearl City is always a good team - they play well, fundamentally,” he said. “We’ll have to throw strikes, play catch, and limit our own mistakes.
“We have a lot of work to do ourselves if we want to plateau at the end of the season,” he added. “For us, we take it one game at a time. We’re always trying to build on the day before.”
Hirayama, who spent the last five years working under Kamehameha coach Vern Ramie as an assistant, has been playing as many players as possible in anticipation of the OIA’s new scheduling format, which will make Saturday double-headers the norm. In the past, teams generally played two games a week - on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
“It’s going to be real different for the kids,” said Hirayama, whose coaching career also includes stops as an assistant coach at Punahou and Mililani. “I don’t think they’re going to be used to playing 14 innings a day.
“It was different with Wednesday and Saturday games. A lot more people are going to have to play than in previous years. I tell the kids to always be ready (to go into the game) because you never know what’s going to happen with back-to-back games.”
With that in mind, Hirayama has played innumerable lineups throughout the preseason, leveling out the playing time in the process. “In most of our scrimmages, we’ve rotated a lot of guys to see who gives us the best chance. We’re only as strong as our weakest link. We’ll have to put it on everybody’s shoulders to do their job. We have a really good group who have been working hard so far to lay the ground work.”
Hirayama was expecting Mililani to have played 11 preseason games by Saturday’s doubleheader with Pearl City.
In addition to hosting their own tournament last weekend, which was to include Punahou, Kailua and Waianae, among others, the Trojans played in tournaments hosted by Iolani and Mid-Pacific earlier in the preseason.
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