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Falcons Facing Cougars In Baseball Season Opener

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One of the by-products of the JV baseball season being moved to winter this year is that a select few also have the option of playing with the varsity as well when its spring season comes around.

Count Kalani baseball coach Shannon Hirai as a fan of the new system. With a young team to take the field for the Falcons this spring, any head start a player can make is a positive.

“They’re way ahead of the other guys right now,” Hirai said of the sophomores,who have gone straight from their JV season to the varsity.“The strength of this team is its youth - we’ve had five sophomores in the lineup at the same time. We have another solid freshman class that has come in, so we’re going to be young for awhile.”

The Falcons has a few key holdovers from last year, when Kalani qualified for the state tournament. But “youthful” definitely defines Hirai’s current lineup.“Our biggest disappointment is that some of our older guys have let the younger ones come in and take their spots.”

The coach hopes his team’s now-customary ultra-competitive preseason schedule will help work out their kinks.By Wednesday’s OIA East Red opener against rival Kaiser, the Falcons were to have played 14 preseason games with three key non-conference tilts against Mainland powers also on the agenda in the coming days.With the OIA’s separation into two divisions this spring, Kalani’s league schedule will become even more daunting with each conference member set to play the other twice.

On the heels of their Kaiser game, the Falcons will host North Monterey County of California and East Union (Mississippi) Friday and Sunday, respectively, at Kahala Field. Maria Carrillo of California also visits Kalani March 17.

For their part, a good balance between pitching, defense and timely hitting has been a given in recent years.The recent focus has been on pitching,according to Hirai. “Our concern right now is our pitching. We’ve had our ups and downs this year. In one of our games (against Mid-Pacific), we gave up six runs on one hit and had five walks. The one bright spot was that Sean Nagaoka came in and one-hit them over the next four innings.

“But pitching will be our biggest key. If our pitching can settle down, we’ll be OK. One game we’re great, and the next game we can’t find the strike zone. In a lot of games, one bad inning has been killing us.”

Hirai wasn’t sure who would get the start on the mound Wednesday, but he expects seniors Troy Kashibara and Bryce Tomatani to lead the way early for the Falcons this season.Kashibara is a third baseman making the transition from second base, where he played in 2007, while Tomatani is a first baseman/catcher.

“Troy has played in enough games that he brings leadership to us,” Hirai said. “His strength is his fielding. Bryce hits for power, and he’s probably the leader of our team. He goes hard at everything he does, and he gets on the other guys when they’re slacking.”

Also back for the Falcons is junior shortstop Jake Massey, who moves from second to shortstop this season. “He’s a guy who will need to get us through some of the rough spots.”

Although only a sophomore, catcher/pitcher Kyle Odo pitched one of Kalani’s state tournament games last spring and figures to see his role expand in his first full season with the varsity. “He’s one of the young guys that we’ll need to step up. Right now, he runs our defense. (Offensively,) he has pretty good power - he just needs to be a little more consistent with the bat.”

Hirai also is high on sophomores Sean Ni’i and Ryan Ige, who recently completed their JV seasons. (An injury has sidelined Ige, however, so his status for this week was still in question at press time.)

“They’ll push some of our older players for playing time,“Hirai said of the pair.“Right now,Sean is catching everything in sight. He’s not the fastest guy, but he gets good jumps (on the ball), and he’s shown he can hit varsity pitching. Ryan is the same way. He covers a lot of ground.”

Although inexperience breeds self-imposed miscues, the Falcons are working hard to avoid beating themselves. “We’ve been in most games,” the coach said, “but we’ve usually had one bad inning where we fall apart. We’re having some growing pains. “