Knights Close Out American Legion Play Against Punahou

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While the Castle baseball team won’t advance to the American Legion League playoffs, the Knights still will complete their summer with work well done, according to coach Tracy Tokuda.

The league’s 20-game schedule, which featured the likes of ILH powers Mid-Pacific, Kamehameha and Punahou, among others, assured that.

“I like the schedule,” said Tokuda, who is an assistant in the spring to Knights’ head coach Jason Berinobis. “We can take a good look at all of these guys, so it’s a test for all of our players.When you play this many games, they all get to play at least half of the time. We don’t sit anybody. The most a pitcher has gone for us is five innings.

Everyone is pitching about three.”

The Knights had one of the younger teams in the OIA this spring, with nine sophomores and nine juniors on the roster. Their summer games, therefore, have been a preview of their 2010 season in a sense, with no recent or not-so-recent high school graduates involved.

“That’s the way we wanted it - to gear this more toward Castle baseball so we can see who will be ready to roll for next season,” Tokuda said.

With that in mind, one certainty for 2010 is that the Knights will feature one of the state’s top pitchers in First Team all-Red East conference returnee Keola Jarrett, who has picked up where he left off in the spring, according to his coach. They also are banking on Froy Smith (shortstop), Seamus Yoneshige (pitcher/outfielder), Chad Takaba (outfielder),

Nick Oreta (pitcher/infielder), Brandon Higa (outfield), Tyler Kon (second base), Elika Jarrett (pitcher), Justin Kaawa (catcher/first base) and brothers Brede and Tyler Kochi. All have logged lots of playing time this summer.

While the Knights were just 4-8-2 as of late last week, they have been more competitive than their record, in Tokuda’s view. “A few misses here and there, and we could have an even record,” he said. “Small mistakes have cost us some games, including the games we tied. Other than that, we’ve played pretty decent ball.”

A 3-2 win over three-time defending OIA champion Pearl City last month was a huge confidence boost, given the Chargers’ stellar play in recent years.“Pearl City is one of the best teams, and our kids need to learn to believe in themselves that they can compete with the best teams. This team is more dedicated than some of the teams we had in the past, who thought summer was a time to just show up when you can. These kids are always here. They’re dedicated to the game, and they’re putting in more time than teams of the past.”

Castle returns to action Wednesday and Friday with home games at 4:30 p.m. against Damien and Kapolei, respectively. At 9 a.m. Sunday, the Knights close out their season at home against Punahou.