Summer League Serves As Falcons’ OIA Dress Rehearsal

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On paper at least, the Kalani High baseball team of 2010 has arrived early.

Indeed, with no less than nine players who have logged starts over the past couple of seasons back in for American Legion League play, Falcons coach Shannon Hirai expects to get more than a passing glimpse of his team for next spring.

“We’ll be playing (this summer) with next year’s varsity team, and that’s exciting,” said Hirai. “Our experience is our strength. We have a whole bunch of guys who have started at one point in time.”

Kalani’s 16-game ALL slate will help the Falcons come together as a group and also play against some of the best teams in the state, not unlike their pre-season schedules of late. In the early going, Kalani also will see some familiar faces. The Falcons opened legion play last Friday against Mililani, the team that had eliminated Kalani from the OIA in April, posting a come-from-behind 5-4 victory. On Friday, the Falcons were to meet Kamehameha, a team Kalani faced four times during its 2009 preseason.

“It’s kind of interesting the way the scheduling worked out,” Hirai said, “but it can only make us better playing against the better teams.”

Because the varsity-level age group allows college players and those recently graduated from high school, a lot of the teams Kalani faces this summer will have members of other schools bolstering their lineup. Waipahu, who the Falcons visit for a game at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, is among those teams. The Marauders have won back-to-back OIA Division II titles and will have a handful of players who have completed their prep eligibility, most notably pitchers Triton Gante and Kaimi Haina. The Falcons likely will get to face one or both on Wednesday.

“They have a whole bunch of kids to choose from, so it will be interesting to see who we actually face,” Hirai said. “This isn’t your Waipahu team of three or four years ago. They’re a really tough, scrappy bunch. I watched them in the OIA title game, and they don’t get rattled.”

For their part, the Falcons are looking to maximize their offensive opportunities, according to Hirai, who brought in former University of Hawaii standout and one-time Damien assistant Greg Oniate as a batting coach.

“He came over in the middle of the year, and we saw our (team) batting average go up about 50 points,” Hirai said. “We hit the ball with more power.”

The Falcons were hit hard by graduation on both offense and defense, most notably Wataru Noguchi, who elected to graduate early. He led Kalani in both hits and RBI in the spring and was projected to be a starter for the fourth straight year next spring.

“We lost our first, second and No. 5 hitter in the batting order to graduation,” Hirai said. “Offensively is where we need to get better. Kiel Odo is our power guy, and Gavin Okada hit for .300 last season, so those are two guys with experience who have had success.

“They’ll all have to step up their hitting,” he added. “Getting more at-bats will help, especially with us using only wood bats for the first half of the season.”

As in past years, ALL teams won’t use the more standard aluminum bats until the second half of the regular season. Aluminum is allowed for the playoffs and the national tournament.

Defensively, Hirai likes his team’s prospects, especially with a pitching staff that figures to revolve around Devin Lee, Odo and Gavin Okada. “I don’t know if we have a dominant pitcher, but we have three or four guys (of a high caliber),” he said.

“Devin has played really well for us. His control is his strength,” he added of Lee, who had tossed two shutouts and posted a pair of playoff wins during the recently completed post-season. “He can throw three pitches for strikes, and all of the successful pitchers at the high school level can do that. Kiel’s been doing well. We’ll look at using him at least once a week next season (as a starter on the mound). He’s a good leader. Gavin gives us a different look pitching-wise. He’s crafty.”

Although not in the mix for this summer, senior-to-be Joey Asuncion is healing from surgery and “should be ready in the fall.” He is projected as the team’s closer on the mound, while holding a spot at either third or in the middle infield.

Hirai also sees Kalani’s play in the outfield as a key for the immediate future, led by Ryan Ige, Sean Ni’i and Spencer Shiroma.

“They’re all able to run pretty well out there, so they should be able to cover some ground,” he said.

On the heels of Wednesday’s game with Waipahu, Kalani has upcoming games versus Maryknoll at 4:30 p.m. at Kahala Community Park and against Castle at noon Sunday at Central Oahu Regional Park.