Super Regional berth has Nomura in Hog heaven

Arkansas second baseman Rick Nomura called the Stillwater Regional extremely hard to win, and he wasn’t just talking about the quality of teams.

In order for the Razorbacks to advance to one of eight Super Regional series beginning Friday, Nomura had to beat his friend, Oklahoma State senior Tim Arakawa, who plays the same position for the Cowboys.

The two played head-to-head once with Arakawa, a 2011 Moanalua graduate, hitting a homer, but Nomura’s Razorbacks winning the game 7-5.

The very next day, Arkansas claimed the regional with a 4-3 victory over St. Johns. Nomura, who was one of seven players from local high schools to play in the NCAA tournament, was the only one to advance.

"It was a hard series because someone is going home unhappy and you want the best for your friends," said Nomura, a 2012 Punahou graduate. "It was a great experience playing against (Arakawa)."

Nomura has had an outstanding first season at Arkansas after spending two years in Texas at Alvin Community College.

He’s one of three regulars hitting over .300, batting .308 with 10 doubles, a triple, four homers and 17 RBIs to go along with 39 runs scored and a .987 fielding percentage.

When Nomura signed with Arkansas, he was unsure how much he would play, but earned the opening-day start. He’s played in 52 of the team’s 60 games, starting 45.

"People always say you should go to a school you can play at but I wanted to go to a school where it was a challenge," Nomura said. "For me, I’d hit in the (batting) cage hours and hours after practice until getting kicked off the field and I felt like I wasn’t wasting my time, each rep was counting for me.

"I’m kind of lucky I have that work ethic and I feel like I developed that from my father."

Nomura’s father, Ron, played baseball at the University of Hawaii from 1976 to ’79, coached there with Les Murakami for several years, and is a member of the UH Letterwinners Club.

Rick won state championships at Punahou in 2009 and ’10 and was named to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser All-State first team as a senior hitting .400 with nine stolen bases.

He said he was receiving interest from Oregon, Hawaii and San Francisco among other schools, but as signing day approached, they all lost interest.

"I don’t really know what happened but they all just stopped talking to me," Nomura said. "A junior college from Texas called and said they were going to offer a full ride and I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t want to go all the way to Texas.’"

Texas turned out to be Nomura’s only opportunity. He went to Alvin Community College for two years with his parents blessing.

They said he could come home whenever he wanted but Nomura had other ideas.

"Alvin is a little town with a school, a Wal-Mart and Popeye’s. That’s all it really was," Nomura said. "It was tough and Mom and Dad said I could come back (to Hawaii) but in my head, I wasn’t going to come back. If I was going to do something I’m going to stick with it the whole way and if it opened doors for me then I thought it’d be good to show local kids it could do the same for them."

As a sophomore, Nomura hit .388 with 13 doubles, 10 triples and 43 RBIs. At that point, he received multiple Division I looks and jumped on the Razorbacks’ offer almost as soon as he got it.

"I knew it was an SEC school and I knew it was the best conference in the nation and they showed me all of the facilities and it was awesome how well I was treated," Nomura said. "I told my dad I was going to sign and he said, ‘Rick, you know I’ll back you up with whatever you want.’"

Arkansas (38-22) won its fourth NCAA Regional in the past seven years and first since 2012, when it advanced to the College World Series.

The Razorbacks will host Missouri State in a Super Regional, Missouri State being the higher overall seed. A scheduling issue involving a minor league team forced the Bears to play in Fayetteville, Ark., at Baum Stadium, which is already sold out for the weekend.

Game 1 is Friday at 10:30 a.m. Hawaii time and will be shown on ESPN2.

"We played them here and they beat us 2-0 so that’s not a good memory, but we know they’ve got a good righty and a good lefty so we’re preparing ourselves," Nomura said.

Nomura was one of two SEC baseball players from Hawaii. The other, Kentucky junior outfielder Ka‘ai Tom, is rated as Baseball America’s No. 239 overall draft prospect.

Other local players to make the NCAA tournament included Oregon State’s K.J. Harrison, who was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American on Wednesday, and Beavers second baseman Christian Donahue (‘Iolani ’14).

Oregon shortstop Mark Karaviotis (Maui ’13), Pepperdine senior Kolten Yamaguchi (Konawaena ’11) and Arakawa also played in a regional.