Pearl City Sees Opportunity In ALL

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Chace Numata catches a grounder down the third-base line during a Chargers’ practice. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

At a glance,American Legion League’s 20-game summer schedule seems suited for teams reinventing themselves after heavy losses to graduation. Pearl City is one such team, having lost several key components after finishing 16-2 last month.

“It’s a young team,” admitted Gary Nakamoto. “We’re trying to get them ready for next year, so I’ll play everybody every game.It will be equal time out there. If one doesn’t start one game, they’ll start the next.”

Nakamoto always has followed the same “equal opportunity” blueprint in Pearl City’s preseasons as well, using as many as eight pitchers in an effort to develop his team’s depth last spring.

The current lineup is still sprinkled with veterans, including Chace Numata, Kahana Neal, Kawika Pruett and Royce Murai, but Pearl City still is a far different team than the one that closed out spring at the Division I State Baseball Tournament last month with fresh faces interspersed.Adding to the intrigue this summer is that the Chargers will play in the 19-and-under division, although all 17 players are under 17. Unlike some teams,Pearl City won’t have any just-graduated seniors or college players on its roster, in large part because of the number of promising young players coming up through the program.

“They’ll see better competition and better pitching (in the 19-and-under division),” said Nakamoto, adding that three freshmen and a sophomore are up with the team for the summer. “It will give them exposure to playing against older kids.Now is the time to throw them into the fire and see what they can do.”

On that note, Pearl City’s schedule is as demanding as perhaps anyone’s so far. It opened its ALL slate with games against Kailua (a 6-5 loss), the team it narrowly defeated in the OIA tournament in April, Pac-Five (6-0 win) and two-time defending OIA Division II champion Waipahu (2-2 tie), whose roster has four ex-Kamehameha standouts. On Wednesday,the Chargers play fellow West powerhouse Aiea before meeting Damien Friday. Both games are at 4:30 p.m. at Central Oahu Regional Park.

Should Pearl City make the top eight in the ALL, it would guarantee itself a berth in the playoffs as well as a chance to play more games. To that end, Nakamoto is hoping to regain the services of Pruett this week after he was sidelined for two weeks with the flu.

As projected, Neal, Murai and Numata have carried the Chargers through the team’s first three games. Nakamoto also is high on freshman Tyler Tokunaga, a pitcher and outfielder who is one of the four newcomers to the team.“We’re trying to get the young guys going,” he said.“They’re kind of in awe right now, playing with college-age kids.”

Nakamoto was pleased with his team’s offensive output through the first three games as the Chargers averaged four runs per outing against solid competition.As in past years,theALL will allow only wood bats for the first half of the regular season in an effort to promote solid fundamentals at the plate.

“For us, it’s a good thing,” said Nakamoto, who is 31-5 in his first two years as the varsity coach at Pearl City. “You don’t have the big hits. We’re not seeing a lot of home runs.There are more singles and (a need to) push people up (on the base paths).”