5 players with Hawaii ties selected in MLB draft
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Commissioner Rob Manfred speaks during the Major League Baseball draft, Thursday, June 9, 2016, in Secaucus, N.J.
Hawaii Pacific’s Brandon Bonilla was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 13th round (No. 391 overall) of the 2016 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft this morning.
Bonilla, a left-handed pitcher, set the Sharks’ single-season record for saves this past season with 12 and was 2-0 with a 0.36 ERA. He gave up only one earned run and struck out 38 over 25 1/3 innings.
He is the first HPU baseball player ever selected in the first 13 rounds of the MLB draft.
Bonilla touched 97 miles per hour in a game this past season and is the son of six-time MLB all-star Bobby Bonilla.
Oregon shortstop Mark Karaviotis, a 2013 Maui High graduate, was taken in the 19th round (No. 569 overall) by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Karaviotis played in only seven games this year with four starts before suffering a season-ending injury. He hit .254 as a freshman and .270 as a sophomore with the Ducks.
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The Diamondbacks took Karaviotis in the 39th round of the 2013 draft out of high school but he elected to go to college.
The Los Angeles Angels used their 21st-round selection (No. 636 overall) on UNC-Greensboro outfielder L.J. Kalawaia, a 2011 Saint Louis High graduate.
Kalawaia, who missed the 2015 season with an injury, was named to the All-Southern Conference first team this year after hitting .396 with 11 doubles, six triples, six homers and 65 RBIs.
His .396 batting average is the fifth-best in school history and his 65 RBIs are tied for the fourth-best in a single season.
Hawaii Hilo right-hander Jordan Kurokawa became the first Maryknoll alum ever selected in the MLB draft when the Philadelphia Phillies took him to start the 28th round (No. 827 overall).
Kurokawa touched 93 on the radar gun in a two-hit shutout of Hawaii in February and finished the season 3-5 with a 2.96 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 67 innings for the Vulcans.
He’s the first player drafted out of UH-Hilo since Lars Knepper in 2007.
Bonilla’s teammate at HPU, Rico Garcia, a right-handed pitcher, was selected in the 30th round (No. 890 overall) by the Colorado Rockies.
Garcia, a Saint Louis alumnus and teammate of Kalawaia in high school, went 6-5 with a 3.39 ERA for the Sharks this year. He struck out 59 and allowed 18 walks in 77 innings.
13 responses to “5 players with Hawaii ties selected in MLB draft”
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itʻs 9:00 and the title of this article reads: 3 will Hawaii ties selected in MLB draft. I wonder how long itʻs going to take SA to correct this. On another note, congratulations to the three that were selected – HPUʻs Brandon Bonilla, Maui High grad Mark Karaviotis, and St. Louis grad L.J. Kalawaia.
Will Hawaii ever have MLB? We would all go.
wrightj, agreed. If not MLB, AAA, AA high minor league baseball like the Hawaii Islanders might also do
well. Nothing like watching a baseball game, outside, on a warm, balmy, tradewind night, under the lights and night sky, with a bag of boiled peanuts and a cold beer.
In a dome stadium.
reminds me of the termite palace.
peanuts…popcorn…coke!
I’d go
I’d go in a heartbeat, but I remember when the Islanders were the Pirates farm club…it was sometimes a joke when guys got sent up….by the time they got to Pittsburgh, the problem would be fixed and they’d come right back to Hawaii without playing a game for the Pirates.
But, I must say, as fun as the termite palace games were, it was much more beautiful and relaxing at Rainbow Stadium during the last years of the Islanders.
Who cares?
ZERO UH players drafted. Tells me there is talent problem and recruiting problem
at Manoa.
it’s been going on for some time now.
Yes, but one Hilo and two HPU.
None of these low drafted players will ever make the majors, alas.
Bonilla could well make it. One of the biggest factors in getting up to the game is having a father that played there.