To Win On Field, Lady Hurricanes Must First Win In Mind

Wednesday - May 13, 2009
By Jack Danilewicz
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Kai Clark stops the ball in a play at third. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Kapolei Head Softball Coach Tony Saffery can be included among those who believe peak performance begins in the mind.As he prepared his team for this week’s Datahouse Division I State Softball Championships, handling the moment - whether a positive or negative play - is an important task for his team amid the ebb and flow that are the norm in the post-season.

“We’re not short on talent,” said Saffery,whose Hurricanes take a 12-4 record to the state tournament. “The biggest thing we face is our mind-set. We’re real good playing ahead. We play good ball. But when things go sour, we have to be able to dig a little deeper and get ourselves out of our funk.”

The month of May has been a month to remember in past years for the Hurricanes, who won a state championship in only their third season of varsity competition in 2004, in addition to finishing second,third and sixth,respectively, in 2005, ‘06 and ‘07. Pairings for the tournament, which runs Tuesday through Friday at various sites, were to be released over the weekend.


 

For their part, the Hurricanes figure to be one of the younger teams at this year’s state tournament with only three to four members of its starting lineup in their last year of eligibility.

Saffery isn’t content to merely look at the future,however, as the Hurricanes have already covered a lot of ground this year, most recently at the OIA Tournament recently, where they won three of four to finish third. Kapolei’s lone defeat in the tournament came versus Mililani (8-3) in the semifinals. Of their three victories, which came against Farrington, Castle and Kailua, Kapolei’s most impressive was clearly the latter versus the Surfriders, which ended in a 22-8 Hurricane win. Saffery is hoping for that kind of offensive output at this week’s state tournament.

“It’s regimented work,” he said. “You have to be able to get that run and then defend it.If you score,you have to step it up a notch. If you get two, you have to step it up two notches to defend those runs.”

Saffery has rotated Shavannah Holt-Santiago and Kahana Higa for much of the regular seasons but went with Holt-Santiago exclusively as his starter in the OIA Tournament and will follow suit this week.

“The biggest thing is that she needs to pitch with confidence,” he said of Holt-Santiago. “She’s not a power pitcher, so she has to hit her spots,and then we can defend. A strike-out for us is icing on the cake. Mainly, we want to hit the corners with confidence.”

Regardless of who gets the call, Saffery sees limiting self-imposed miscues as a big key.

“We cannot defend walks,” he said.


Offensively, the Hurricanes have been relying on solid play from their underclassmen of late, including Mikela Manewa, Lauren Asato. Doriann Acierto, Cherece Beyer and sisters Alyssa and

Aimee Aipa. They’ve helped balance out an attack led by seniors Tehani Ka’aihue and Kai Clark, who have accepted scholarships for next year to East Carolina and New Mexico State, respectively.

Saffery is also hoping to regain the services of Brittany Orab, who was under the weather recently.A starting second baseman, she joins right-fielder Tasia Villamor as the only other senior in the lineup along with Clark and Ka’aihue.

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