Codie Paiva went more than two years without losing a game in college.
His spot at the top of the Loyola Marymount rotation wasn’t earned, however, until he returned home to the site of one of the most emotional games in the history of the Hawaii state baseball tournament.
Three years after pitching all 10 innings in a 2-1 loss to Campbell in the state semifinals, the 2015 Kamehameha graduate toed the rubber at Les Murakami Stadium and tossed a four-hit shutout against Hawaii on a Thursday night in early March.
Not only did that performance last season lock up the No. 1 spot in the rotation that he has hasn’t relinquished, but it allowed him to exorcise the demons of the painful loss in high school that left him in tears in the dugout.
“The whole venue (Les Murakami Stadium) itself and the crowd and being home under the lights, I don’t know. It just makes me feel like I have extra adrenaline and I’m a little more locked in than I normally am,” Paiva said in a phone interview. “The presence just gets to me.”
Paiva gave up just four hits in that state tournament game but didn’t get a chance to continue his success there, heading to LMU instead.
He started only three games over his first two seasons, going 7-0 in 35 appearances.
His first career start was a midweek game against Hawaii at Page Stadium as a freshman, when he struck out seven and allowed just two runs in six innings.
“I think definitely that was one of the points in time that gave me the confidence I could be a starter at this level,” Paiva said. “Against a solid baseball team knowing I could go six-plus innings, that was the first step for me.”
Despite finishing his freshman year with a 1.57 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 17 innings, Paiva again was a reliever as a sophomore, making just two spot starts.
He went 6-0 with a 2.16 ERA in his second year with the Lions, but yet again he entered his junior season out of the rotation.
Since being given the opportunity to start to open the Hawaii series last year, he has taken over the role as the ace of the staff.
“My only goal really is to be a starter and keep my team in the game for as long as I can,” said Paiva, who is 1-2 with a 2.91 ERA in four starts this season. “Try to get a (West Coast Conference) title and make it to a regional and then hopefully after it’s all said and done this season, I get called on draft day.”
At 6-foot-5, Paiva throws in the low 90s and said he’s topped out at 93. He’s also added a cutter this season in hopes of impressing MLB scouts.
“It would mean the world to me (getting drafted),” Paiva said. “Ever since I was a kid, that’s always what I wanted to do. I never took my eye off of that. It’d be really special if I get a call that day.”
The Lions are hovering around the .500 mark at 8-7 overall after winning two of three at Louisiana-Lafayette over the weekend.
They own wins over Southern Cal, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine but were swept in a three-game series at Oregon, which rose to No. 1 in the RPI after winning three of four at Hawaii over the weekend.
LMU has won four WCC titles and been to six regionals but has not appeared in the postseason since 2000.
“We’ve got a lot of unselfish guys who want to win,” Paiva said. “This is just a really close-knit group and we’ve got some talent, but no personal agendas on the team at all this year and that’s kind of nice.”
The Lions open conference play at home on Friday against Santa Clara.
PROFILE
CODIE PAIVA
>> School: Loyola Marymount
>> Class: Senior
>> Height: 6-foot-5
>> Position: Right-handed pitcher
>> High school: Kamehameha (2015)
CAREER STATISTICS
Year App-GS IP H ER BB SO W-L ERA
2016 11-1 23 17 4 3 19 1-0 1.57
2017 24-2 581⁄3 49 14 11 52 6-0 2.16
2018 15-12 861⁄3 87 40 26 65 6-6 4.17
2019 4-4 212⁄3 23 7 4 20 1-2 2.91
Total: 54-19 1891⁄3 176 65 44 156 14-8 3.09
AROUND THE NATION
BASEBALL
>> Everett Lau, ‘Iolani ’16: The Auburn junior designated hitter belted his first career home run for the Tigers and finished 3-for-6 with a double, two runs scored and five RBIs in a 15-9 win over Tennessee Martin on March 5.
>> Wyatt Young, Mid-Pacific ’18: The Pepperdine starting second baseman and leadoff hitter finished 5-for-13 with three runs scored, a walk and an RBI in a three-game sweep of UC Davis over the weekend.
>> Cole Cabrera, Punahou ’17: The Cal Poly sophomore left fielder had a hit in all four games of a sweep of Columbia University and finished 5-for-17 with a double, a walk, three runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base.
>> Stone Parker, Kailua ’18: The Kansas freshman right-hander and reigning Star-Advertiser All-State pitcher of the year threw a perfect ninth inning with one strikeout in a 6-2 win over Georgetown on Saturday in the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla. Parker has appeared in five games this season and hasn’t allowed a run in 3 2/3 innings with one hit allowed, two strikeouts and no walks.
>> Keith Torres, Saint Louis ’17: The Sacramento State second baseman singled twice, drew four walks, scored four runs and had two RBIs in a four-game sweep of Towson (Md.) over the weekend.
>> Pono Anderson, Saint Louis ’15: The Texas-Arlington senior right-hander improved to 3-1 for the season after allowing five runs on 10 hits in seven innings with one walk and five strikeouts in a 6-5 victory over Seattle on Friday.
>> Noah Sills, Mid-Pacific ’15: The Lamar senior left-hander got the loss in a 4-2 defeat against Stephen F. Austin on Saturday after allowing one earned run on four hits in 5 1/3 innings with no walks and three strikeouts.
>> Riley Guieb, Punahou ’17: The Grinnell (Iowa) sophomore hit .313 (5-for-16) with a double, two walks, five runs scored and three RBIs as the Pioneers opened their season by splitting a four-game series with Buena Vista College over the weekend.
>> Matthew Inaba, ‘Iolani ’18: The Grinnell freshman opened his collegiate career hitting .250 (4-for-16) with three walks, five runs scored and two RBIs against Buena Vista.
>> Ryne Oshiro, Moanalua ’17: The Saint Martin’s (Wash.) third baseman went 4-for-15 with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBIs as the Saints lost three of four to Concordia (Ore.) over the weekend.
>> Kahi Hirano, Maryknoll ’15: The St. Martin’s (Wash.) starting shortstop doubled, tripled, drew three walks, scored twice and drove in a run against Concordia (Ore.).
>> Aaron Renaud, Saint Louis ’17: The St. Martin’s (Wash.) first baseman went 3-for-14 with a double and three RBIs against Concordia (Ore.).
>> Micah Hee, Kamehameha ’16: The Cal State Los Angeles junior right-hander improved to 3-0 for the season, allowing four runs on eight hits in six innings with one walk and five strikeouts in a 5-4 victory over Cal State Dominguez Hills on Sunday.
>> Andrei Stoyanow, Kapolei ’18: The Hendrix (Ark.) freshman drove in two runs in a three-game series against Centre and pitched the final game of the series, earning a no-decision. Stoyanow allowed two earned runs on four hits in five innings with two walks and three strikeouts on Sunday. In four games with three starts, Stoyanow has a 1.89 ERA and a 2-0 record with 18 strikeouts in 19 innings.
WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS
>> Maela Lazaro, Moanalua ’16: The Oregon State junior scored a 9.650 on the balance beam for the 15th-ranked Beavers in a loss to No. 4 LSU on Friday.
SOFTBALL
>> Kamalani Dung, Kamehameha ’15: The California senior right-hander tossed a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts in a 14-0 win over Hawaii on Thursday and added a one-hit shutout with no walks and seven strikeouts in an 8-0 victory over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Saturday in the Hawaii Spring Fling tournament.
>> Kalei Kaneshiro, Kamehameha ’16: The Southern Illinois-Edwardsville third baseman hit a solo homer in the Cougars’ 5-2 win over Utah on Sunday in the Hawaii Spring Fling tournament.
>> Ashley Salausa, Leilehua ’17: The Nevada left fielder went 4-for-11 with a double, four runs and four RBIs to help the Wolf Pack go 2-2 in the Silicon Valley Classic that ended Saturday. Salausa was 2-for-7 with a walk, a double and two runs scored in a doubleheader sweep of Saint Mary’s (Calif.) on Sunday.
>> Dallas Millwood, Kamehameha ’18: The Nevada freshman first baseman was 4-for-11 with three RBIs in the Silicon Valley Classic and was 2-for-6 with a homer and four RBIs in the sweep of the Gaels.
>> Jocelyn Alo, Campbell ’17: The Oklahoma sophomore went 3-for-10 with a walk and two runs scored in four wins over the weekend. The Sooners have won 41 consecutive games at home.
>> Kawai Scanlan, ‘Iolani ’17: The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps sophomore outfielder finished 2-for-5 with a double, two walks and two runs scored in a sweep of La Verne on Saturday.
MEN’S TRACK & FIELD
>> Andrei Iosivas, Punahou ’18: The Princeton freshman won the heptathlon at the Ivy League indoor championships on Feb. 24. Iosivas’ 5,265 points was the fifth-highest in school history. He won the 60-meter dash in 7.01 seconds and tied for first in the pole vault at 4.65 meters.
>> Kaeo Kruse, Kamehameha ’16: The Harvard junior helped the men’s distance medley team finish third at the Ivy League indoor Heptagonal Championships with a time of 10:00.59.
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Stats compiled by Billy Hull, Star-Advertiser. To submit an athlete for publication, email bhull@staradvertiser.com.
