ALL Windward Baseball Lacks Zest

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In the eyes of veteran coach Corey Ishigo, if the Windward Baseball team is to make the American Legion League playoffs at the end of the month, the players will need to develop exactly what has been missing to date - a sense of urgency.

“We’re not doing anything good at this time,” admitted Ishigo, whose team was 3-4 at press time. “We don’t have any heart, and there’s been a lack of effort. The seniors only come out when they want to - and they’re the ones that have been around (who can provide leadership). (At this point) we probably won’t make the playoffs. They’re going to have to bust their asses (to make the playoffs).”

The American Legion League’s 17-game regular season wraps at the end of the month with the top eight teams advancing to the playoffs. The overall winner from those post-season qualifiers from Oahu will advance to the National Tournament, which will take place in mid-August in Albuquerque, N.M.

Falcon Baseball (a combined team of Kaiser and Kalani players), Diamond Head (also a combined team) and Punahou were tied for first heading into last weekend. All three had only one loss.

The Windward Baseball players were in the middle of the pack in the league standings, so mathematically they were still very much in contention for the post-season should they put together a win-streak.

Approximately eight games remain on Windward’s American Legion League schedule.

Despite the team’s struggles to date, Ishigo praised the play of pitcher/infielder Kili Vierra, who will be a senior in the fall.

“He’s been our only pitcher so far,” Ishigo said. “He’s the only one throwing strikes at the moment, and he’s been hitting the ball OK.”

A right-hander, Vierra came on strong at the end of the Kailua Surfriders’ regular season, limiting Campbell to a pair of singles with eight strike-outs and no walks in a complete-game victory in the consolation round of the Wally Yonamine state baseball tournament last month on Maui.

One thing unique to American Legion League play has been the exclusive use of wooden bats by all of the teams. Aluminum bats will be allowed in the playoffs as well as the National Tournament on the Mainland next month. While a number of his fellow coaches in the league have viewed the wooden bats as a good developmental tool for the players, Ishigo downplayed the effects in light of Windward’s offensive struggles.

“It hasn’t mattered for us because we haven’t been hitting the ball well anyway,” he said.

The Surfriders, who have won five of the last seven Oahu Interscholastic Association titles, were 12-5 this year and won the consolation bracket of the state baseball championships in May.