Dugout Bench Seldom Used By Chargers Baseball Team
By Jack Danilewicz
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Pearl City head baseball coach Gary Nakamoto was an equal-opportunity employer during the recently completed regular season, sending eight different pitchers to the mound.
Now the second-year coach awaits the payoff: Depth on the mound, after all, is perhaps the most sought-after commodity when the post-season rolls around.
“We’ve given everyone equal time, and then we have some other guys who are mostly closing,” he said. “Our pitching is the key for us. They’ve allowed us to keep a lot of the other teams’ hitters down, and we’ve had timely hits ourselves.”
The Chargers entered last Friday’s OIA semifinal game still undefeated at 13-0, having posted a win over Kalani to advance earlier in the week. All told, Pearl City has won 46 of its last 54 games under Nakamoto, counting the 2009 preseason. Only Kamehameha and Iolani defeated them during a competitive preseason slate in 2009, and in both games Pearl City went with inexperience pitchers as part of Nakamoto’s plan to expose his underclassmen to as many situations as possible.
A week off without a game should further aid his cause, as it will enable the deep pitching staff to be fully rested for next week’s state tournament. Pairings for the tournament will be finalized on Sunday.
Depending on the first matchup, Nakamoto likely will turn to either juniors Kahana Neal and Chace Numata or seniors Jordan Schweitzer and Micah Nakasone to get the start. All four had stellar seasons.
“Kahana and Chase have been holding us up,” he said, “and Jordan and Micah are both seniors in the rotation. They’ve all done really well. It’s been a real team effort this year, so it is hard to single out anyone. They’ve been picking each other up, and everyone is doing their job real well.
“Carleton Tanabe is always going to be Carleton Tanabe,” Nakamoto said of their dependable catcher. “He’s good at throwing guys out.”
Schweitzer has a 0.0 earned run average to lead the way for a staff that has a cumulative ERA of just 0.91. Five different pitchers on the team have two wins to their credit, while another two have each posted a single win.
Offensively, the Chargers have been a streaky bunch, piling up runs in fast fashion at times.
“Opposing pitchers have been able to keep us down for an inning or two, but then the kids start to adjust, and a lot of times we’ve gotten key hits to open things up. Once we score three or four, it changes the momentum with our pitching. No matter the situation, these kids have always been competitive, and they never give up.”
Indeed, one of the keys to Pearl City’s season has been the contributions of players who were reserves a year ago and had to wait their turn to crack the lineup. Second baseman Kyle Kobayashi and center fielder Jordan Oshiro are two that come to mind.
Kobayashi burst onto the Charger scene like a meteor in March after earning a starting spot when he posted four extra-base hits and drove in seven runs in a doubleheader sweep of Waianae.
Oshiro is leading the team in four key categories, including stolen bases (9), hits (19) and runs scored (16), in addition to stringing together a .517 batting average.
“As our lead-off hitter, he’s doing his job,” Nakamoto said. “He’s had a great season. In the field, he can cover a lot of ground.”
The only thing missing from the team resume is the close encounters that season a team. The Chargers were able to break a lot of their games open, except for a 2-0 win at Campbell, the most impressive of their wins to date.
Nakamoto says the Chargers are firmly in the “one-game-at-a-time-mode,” as they proceed through postseason.
“There’s no sense going undefeated in the regular season and then losing after working so hard. Hopefully, we keep the momentum going.”
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