Wins, Leaders Emerge From Marauders This Summer

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AJ Pearson of Waipahu just beats the ball to third base during a game against Kaiser July 2. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

This spring the Waipahu High School baseball team learned how to win. This summer, the Marauders are learning how to lead, to hear longtime coach Milton Takenaka tell it.

He’s enlisted the services of college players and former Mililani standouts John Abreu and Josh Queja to play with Waipahu during its 19-and-under American Legion League regular season.

“I’m glad to have the older kids with us,” said Takenaka, who led Waipahu to the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II title in May.“Being a year older, they’ve taken it upon themselves to help the younger kids out, and it’s a little different for them (the Waipahu kids). They can talk to the kids about what the college game is like. We also have a lot of young kids who aren’t playing much this summer, and the older kids are nurturing them along. It’s good for the college kids, too. They get to keep on playing every day.”

All told, the Marauders will play a 21-game schedule by the time ALL play wraps up in the middle of this month. They took a 6-6-2 record into late last week, making the most of their remaining games’ “must wins” to remain in playoff contention. The top eight teams make the American Legion State Tournament later in July, with the winner moving on to a Western Regional in Utah. A playoff appearance would mean more games for Takenaka’s team, which is the program’s summer goal.

“I think we have to win at least 13 conference games, so we’ll have to string some wins together and become a little more serious,” said Takenaka, whose Marauders went 12-1 in OIA play last season. “Our pitchers will have to step up, and the main thing is that we’ll have to get a lot of kids out to the game. A lot of them have to work in the summer.”

Abreu, who plays shortstop for Waipahu this summer, will be a sophomore at Eastern Arizona College in the fall, while Queja plays for Western Oregon University. Among the holdovers from Waipahu’s impressive run in the OIA last spring are catcher Ignatious MacKenzie, shortstop/pitcher Triton Gante and pitcher/outfielder Kaimi Haina, who was the league’s Division II Player of the Year, after producing a 0.52 earned-run average during the regular season. All three will be seniors in the fall.

“We have a nice nucleus of kids coming back - it’s a good summer for them,” the coach said. “Many of the private schools have teams in the league, so the kids are getting to face a little better pitching (than in the DII in spring). Kaimi is busy with football, so he hasn’t gotten into the swing of baseball yet. Triton is doing a little bit of everything for us this summer. He has a decent arm and he can run, so playing in the outfield has been good for him.

“Ignatious is seeing better pitching this summer, and he struggled a little, offensively, but this summer should be a big help for him.”.

The Marauders were to return to action this week with games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.