Pitcher-rich Falcons In Key Matchups
By Jack Danilewicz
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS | Share
Del.icio.us
Shannon Hirai
Though his team was the OIA Eastern Division regular-season champion a year ago, Kalani baseball coach Shannon Hirai and the Falcons look to the 2006 season to take care of unfinished business.
“The kids talk about going to the state tournament even more than they talk about the OIA,” laughed Hirai, who last took the Falcons to the states in 1998. “Last year we came up one game short, so getting to the state tournament has been the goal all year.”
With that in mind, the team is hoping to be on its game this week with key match-ups set for Wednesday at Kahuku and Friday at Kaimuki. Kalani had taken a 4-2 record into the weekend, with their only two losses coming to defending Oahu champion Kailua and neighborhood rival Kaiser. Both of those teams were leading Kalani by a game in the East at press time.
With only three seniors in the fold, Kalani has one of the youngest squads in the East, but the coach said team unity has made up for varsity inexperience, enabling Kalani to contend again this spring.
“This is one of the closest teams that we’ve had here,” he said. “They’ve been able to handle adversity. My preseason concern was, ‘how would we react to our mistakes?’ So far, pretty good.”
The Falcons got some bad news late last week when they learned that pitcher Micah Takahashi would miss a month with a back injury, but Hirai is hopeful Kalani’s depth will pay dividends in his absence.
“We’re lucky that pitching is one of our strengths.We have about five guys we’re comfortable with, and the team is comfortable with them too. With three games in one week, (depth) has really helped us.
“Right now, defense is our weakness,“he added.“But we’ve been able to overcome some of that adversity. We had eight errors against Kalaheo, but we were still able to win. Defense has been a learning process. Some days we look really good, and on some days it’s ‘Oh, my goodness.’ I think the inexperience (is part of that).”
The Falcons have been productive offensively, taking a team batting average of .378 into the weekend, highlighted by junior right fielder Ridge Carpenter’s team-best .722. He also has 10 RBI and 10 extra base hits.
“Right now, Ridge is on fire. He’s doing it all - hitting with power, hitting to the opposite field, bunting - he worked hard in the off-season, and now he’s seeing the results.”
Seniors Darren Takemoto and Joshua Markwith are also having stellar seasons at the plate, batting .357 and .318, respectively, and will be counted on for more than offense in the coming weeks.
Markwith is the scheduled starter for Wednesday’s game at Kahuku.
“Joshua has a bulldog attitude. He goes after the hitters. He likes the pressure of the situation.”
A pair of juniors - first base-man/pitcher Shamus Kumashiro and catcher/third baseman Jason Lee - and senior outfielder Mitchell Yamada have also been key contributors through the midway point of the season.
“Mitchell does everything we ask - we try to get him in there whenever we can - and Jason’s been a sleeper guy for us so far. He’s our No. 5 guy (in the lineup) now. Shamus (Kumashiro) is the best left-handed pitcher that we have. He’s already pitched in a couple of big games, so he’ll be a key starter now with Micah out.”
Kumashiro will likely be Kalani’s starting pitcher for Friday’s game at Kaimuki, Hirai said.
In a league as competitive as the East, Hirai won’t take this week’s games for granted, although Kahuku and Kaimuki were both a combined 4-8 as of late last week.
“Anyone is capable of beating anyone. There’s not a lot of separation between the top and bottom teams in the league.”
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
