Good Things Come In Threes For Pearl City Baseball Team

Del.icio.us

Pearl City pitcher Kawika Pruett lets loose a powerful throw. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Part of being a two-time defending league champion means being able to handle success the next year. On that note, Pearl City head baseball coach Gary Nakamoto can’t help but like the way his team has stayed the course through a season in which they found themselves the featured team on every opponent’s schedule.

They enter this week’s Division I State Tournament undefeated in 15 games, having recently captured their third straight OIA title. Within the program, the Chargers’ position can be better summed up in that they are three wins away from a state title.

“We gave the kids a day of rest last Tuesday, the day after the OIA championship game, but they came back in on Wednesday ready to play as if it was just another day,“Nakamoto said.“They want to keep the momentum going. We hope we can continue what we’ve been doing.”

The Chargers, who have won 48 of their last 55 games when the 2009 pre-season is included, enter the tournament as battle-tested as a team can be in big games, having played in the state title game as recently as 2007 in addition to three straight wins in OIA title games. Nakamoto also noted that much of his 23-man roster is made up of kids who traveled to the Mainland to play in the Little League World Series by way of two separate Pearl City youth teams.

The state tournament will run Wednesday through Saturday at Les Murakami Stadium in Manoa. In winning the OIA again, the Chargers will receive a first-round bye on Wednesday and will automatically move on to a Thursday quarter-final matchup with a team to be determined. Pairings for the tournament were to be released late Sunday.

For its part, the first-round bye is huge for Pearl City, which enters the tournament with one of the deepest pitching staffs in the state. Eight different pitchers appeared for the Chargers during the regular season, and Nakamoto went with five in three OIA games. Nakamoto was awaiting Sunday’s pairings before finalizing a pitching lineup for this week but acknowledged that Kawika Pruett,Kahana Neal,Chace Numata, Micah Nakasone and Royce Murai were all potential starters for the three games.

“Based on who we had back, we figured the key would be our pitching,” said Nakamoto, whose team has a 1.07 combined earned-run-average. “We worked them all preseason to get them ready, and all of them have performed well when we’ve called on them.”

In addition to solid pitching, defense has been nearly flawless. With that in mind, much of the emphasis has been on offense, according to Nakamoto. Pearl City’s three runs in its win over Kailua in the OIA title game was its lowest output of the season.

“The key is to score early and hold them down,” he said. “You play the cream of the crop, and you have to pick your own game up.”

Pearl City enters this week with a .329 team batting average, led by lead-off hitter Jordan Oshiro at .500. Oshiro also leads the team in runs scored (18), hits (22), stolen bases (10) and doubles (four).

Senior catcher Carlton Tanabe is right behind at .391, including a team-best 23 RBI and three home runs.“He struggled against Kailua, but hopefully he’ll come around,“Nakamoto said.“He has hit hot and cold streaks. He can come back from going 0-4 and go 3-for-4.”

The Chargers are seeking to become the first OIA team to win a state baseball title since 2001, when Kailua won a championship under Corey Ishigo. ILH schools have won seven in a row including the last five by Punahou,but Nakamoto likes the competitiveness he saw in the OIA this year.

“There are a lot of good teams out there with Kailua, Moanalua and Campbell,“he said.“They all have good pitching, and they all play good baseball. The ILH is the ILH, but I think we (OIA schools) will be competitive with them.”