Walking up to the first tee on a quiet morning in Nuuanu isn’t quite like stepping into the batter’s box in a Major League ballpark.

Even so, Kila Ka’aihue still feels that familiar energy before taking his first swing of the day.

“Any time I tee it up I still get the same juices that I had when I was playing,” Ka’aihue said. “Maybe not as much as playing in front of 50,000 people. But you still feel some nerves and you still get some adrenaline going.”

After 13 years in professional baseball that included Major League stints with the Kansas City Royals and Oakland A’s, Ka’aihue called it a career last November. He’d taken up golf as an off-day pastime while playing minor league ball about 12 years and worked on polishing his game since leaving the diamond.

Just about a year after signing his final minor- league deal with the Miami Marlins organization, Ka’aihue is testing his game at Oahu Country Club this week and is one of the final 16 players still in contention for the 108th Manoa Cup title.

Ka’aihue edged Ryan Chang, an incoming junior at Seabury Hall, 1 up on Wednesday to win his second-round match and will face Hilo’s Dalen Yamauchi, last year’s tournament runner-up, today at 7:08 a.m.

Ka’aihue said he first picked up the clubs while playing with the Single-A Burlington Bees in Iowa and was introduced to the game at Spirit Hollow Golf Course.

“It was kind of the only thing to do in that little town,” Ka’aihue said. “Just kind of picked it up there, messed around and in the offseason it’s a lot of fun, something to keep active.”

In a nine-month season, Ka’aihue said he typically got out to the course maybe five times. He’d play a bit more in the offseasons before putting the clubs away again for the spring.

Ka’aihue started playing tournament golf after retiring from baseball and made the cut at the Hawaii State Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Pearl Country Club in March. He entered the Manoa Cup for the first time this summer and shot a 78 on Monday to qualify for the 64-player field.

“I felt like baseball was a complete team sport where you’re relying on so many other people,” he said. “Golf, it’s just you and maybe your caddie. It’s a liberating kind of thing for me. … In this sport, it’s easier to swallow when you make a bogey than when you strike out on a pitch you didn’t think was a strike.”

After making a living taking cuts with the bat, Ka’aihue said he’s still picking up the nuances of a golf swing.

“I wish I could tee it up belt high and take a hack, I’m still learning this swing,” he said. “I don’t know much about it, I just try to dig it out of the dirt. I get lucky that I play with some people that are really good players and they try to help me out as much as they can, but I’m just trying to keep the ball in front of me.”

He’s done it well enough so far to advance to today’s round of 16 in the Hawaii State Amateur Match-Play Championship. Ka’aihue parred 12 of his first 13 holes on Wednesday and went 3 up with a birdie on No. 14 before holding off Chang’s comeback bid.

Defending champion Tyler Ota also advanced on Wednesday by pulling out a 2-and-1 win over Glenn Niitani. Ota was 1 down after 13 holes, evened the match by sinking a 7-foot birdie putt on No. 14 and took the lead on No. 15 after sticking his approach to 6 feet.

“These close matches I feel give you more character, more confidence knowing you can pull it out,” Ota said. “I wasn’t playing bad, I just wasn’t making a lot of putts. It definitely gives me confidence going into tomorrow knowing I can just stay calm and fight the storm.”

Ota is the lone past champion remaining after four-time winner Brandan Kop and 2012 champion Matthew Ma were eliminated on Wednesday.

Chaminade junior Mark Uekawa edged Kop 2 and 1, taking the lead with a birdie on the par-3 16th hole. Isaac Jaffurs, the tournament runner-up in 2014, birdied No. 17 to hold off Ma 2 and 1.