Seasoned Pitchers Await The Call

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Castle’s Ikaika Wise throws the ball from first base. Photo by Leah Ball, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Should Castle’s baseball team be a factor in this week’s Division I state baseball tournament, it will likely look back on the battles faced in the ultra-competitive OIA Red East conference this season as a reason.

“The changes to the OIA (which divided its schools into two divisions in the off-season) help us in the long run, and these two weeks is when it will help us,” said Chad Uyehara, co-coach with Brent Taniguchi.“Having to play a tough game every day in the regular season was good for us.”

The Knights (9-5) saw no let-up in their level of play in the recently completed OIA tournament, when they beat Waianae and Aiea, sandwiched around a loss to current two-time defending champion Pearl City, to finish third. More stiff competition awaits this week, with four outer island schools and three teams from the ILH also expected to be in 12-team state tournament field that also will include OIA rivals Pearl City, Kailua, Aiea and Roosevelt. While Castle had hoped to advance to the OIA title game, it bounced back from the disappointment of losing in the semi-finals in impressive fashion, by putting together a workmanlike 4-2 win over Aiea in the third-place game.

“We hope we can keep our momentum going,” Uyehara said, “and that our senior leadership will carry us. We want to play it game by game and see if we can make something happen.”

Pairings for the state tournament, which will run Wednesday through Saturday, were to be announced on Sunday. Without a first-round bye, the Knights will likely have to play four games in four days. But they have thrived in this position before, having been unseeded in 2006 before becoming the surprise team of the state tournament with a third-place finish.

“We feel good about where we’re at and what we can do,” he said.“If we can keep it close, anything can happen. You have to be mentally tough enough to grind it out every day.”

The good news is that its strength lies with a seasoned pitching staff of talented right handers: seniors Pulama Silva, Bryan Raines and Josh Serrano, among others.

“We’ll have them throwing in the bull pen (during the week),and we’ll probably decide (on Wednesday’s starter) a couple of days before. We have a number of guys to choose from.Talent-wise,we have the pitching.”

Serrano got the call in the OIA third-place game against Aiea and took advantage of his opportunity, tallying five strikeouts in five innings of work before Silva came on in relief to finish the contest. Raines leads the team with 30 innings pitched, meanwhile, and has been equally dangerous, offensively, with a team-best 13 RBI to go with a .323 batting average and an on-base percentage of .400.

Further offensive output has come from Kaliko Cayetano-Tamashiro (.409; team-best nine bases on balls), Coby Agres (.303; eight RBI), Marcus Ofoia-Stevens (.438) and Serrano (.407; nine RBI). The Knights are currently hitting .330 as a team.

“Offensively, hopefully, we’re peaking at the right time. Marcus has been a spark plug for us on offense when we’ve needed it. He really earned his way into the lineup. The No. 7 spot is a very important spot for us - we’re hoping he sees a lot of fastballs - and he can be a big difference-maker.

“Kaliko has been hot for most of the season,“he added of the right-fielder who hits in the No. 2 spot. “His on-base percentage is .576.”