The calendar waits for no one. So just three weeks into Kahi Ka’anoi’s tenure as Kamehameha’s baseball coach, a Warrior team in the midst of transition endured a rough test to start the ILH season.
No. 3 Mid-Pacific sprayed 16 hits around Goeas Field in Hawaii Kai — with two leaving the park — and rolled to a 14-5 win over the fifth-ranked Warriors to open the league schedule on Wednesday.
“I don’t think we had 16 hits all of last year,” MPI coach Dunn Muramaru quipped. “It’s good when you get a lead and we just kept hitting.”
MPI catcher Kyle Layugan drove in the Owls’ first run with a line-drive single in the top of the first, launched a three-run homer in the second and was on the receiving end of an efficient pitching performance by fellow senior Shion Matsushita.
“It’s a big step for us because since before preseason (the MPI coaches) have been trying to tell us to sit back and hit the ball to the opposite field and we did a good job with that today,” Layugan said.
A couple of exceptions were Layugan’s drive to left to highlight the Owls’ five-run second inning and left-handed hitting Jet Uechi’s drive out to right in the sixth.
Given the early lead, Matsushita, a right-handed side-armer, allowed four runs on eight hits over 51⁄3 innings in the win.
“It felt like coaches really trusted me so it gave me confidence to pitch out there and help my team out,” Matsushita said of getting the starting assignment in the ILH opener.
While Muramaru remains the dean of ILH coaches, Ka’anoi is the league’s newest after a turbulent preseason in Kapalama Heights.
The Kamehameha program was thrown into upheaval in late January when head coach Thomas Perkins and the rest of the varsity and junior varsity coaching staffs were let go two days before the start of tryouts. The changes also wiped out a preseason trip to California.
Ka’anoi’s hiring as interim varsity head coach was announced on Feb. 7 (John Barrozo III was named the interim JV coach), giving him about three weeks to prepare the Warriors for the ILH season.
“I think we’re all kind of learning each other,” said Ka’anoi, a seventh-round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals in 2000 who was coaching his kids’ teams when the position opened up. “It’s been a whirlwind experience you could say. But it’s something I look forward to every day and I’m looking forward to the future.
“I love this program. It’s done a lot for me in my life and my family and I just want to be here and give back as much as I can and help the boys reach their full potential. That’s what I’m here for.
“They have a great attitude,” said Ka’anoi, “It’s been tough for them. They didn’t get to go on a trip, new coach.”
The Warriors offense showed some spark late with two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth on catcher Vince Venenciano’s homer to left.
“We made some good adjustments toward the end of the game,” Ka’anoi said. “It’s something we can continue to work on and grow with. … We have a lot to work on and just have to keep plugging away.”
