The numbers are fantastic, but the pride is immeasurable for Maryknoll baseball.

The Spartans are 7-3-1 in Division I baseball in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, battling for the regular-season title along with perennial powerhouses Saint Louis, Kamehameha and Punahou. A win over Saint Louis last Saturday would have upset the cart once again, but the Crusaders left Goeas Field with a win, preventing a two-way tie for first place.

With one week remaining in the regular season, Saint Louis (9-1-1) is in position to clinch first place and an automatic state-tournament berth. Maryknoll in the title chase is a common theme for boys and girls basketball, and in softball more recently. But D-I baseball?

Parker Grant has seen it from afar and, now, at point-blank distance. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior is one of the top pitchers in the ILH. The program’s success in D-II state tournaments was historic, not long after the team left Pac-Five baseball to go on its own. Coming this close at the D-I level in the state’s toughest baseball league is a different universe.

“Definitely, this year when we started winning, people and some alumni baseball players are happy. One of the guys works for OC 16, he’s a Maryknoll (alumna) and he told our coach he can finally be proud to wear his hat,” Grant said. “It’s the truth. Coach Alaka‘i (Aglipay) won (state titles) all four years over there (at Punahou) with coach Eric (Kadooka), so he knows how to win. He’s more like a player-coach. He feels out what his players are thinking, especially his leaders. He always communicates with us. I think that’s a big thing in a player-coach relationship, the trust they have in the coach.”

Grant is 2-1 with one save, posting a 1.96 earned-run average. He has 16 strikeouts and 11 walks in 18 innings pitched. He picked up a save in a 6-5 win over Pac-Five during week one of the ILH season. Grant had a four-hit shutout against ‘Iolani with eight K’s. He pitched 51⁄3 innings for a win over then-No. 1 Kamehameha. On Saturday, he permitted two earned runs in 51⁄3 innings with five strikeouts and one walk, but took the loss against Saint Louis.

“I don’t think I’m pitching to the best of my ability right now,” Grant said.

His self-assessed grade for each of his pitches so far this spring: fastball, B; slider, A-; changeup, B; curve, B.

“During the summer I was 87-88 mph, was at my prime weight: 185, 190 pounds. I’m like 175 after basketball,” said Grant, who is still topping at 87-88 mph.

“I think he has the potential to be a starter (at Kansas),” said Aglipay, the former Punahou standout who played at Southern Utah. “Especially with all the movement he has on his pitches. I think once Kansas gets him on their program, he should be in the 90s, no problem.”

Nearly four years ago, Grant was 5-9 and 150 pounds as a freshman. Getting back to 185 or 190 won’t take long with his regimen.

“I’m trying to put on more weight,“ Grant said. “I hope to be a good 190, all muscle, and get to maybe 195, 200. All the pitchers in MLB are 200-plus almost.”

Grant’s self-critique comes from the offseason success he had with Hawaii Elite, which battled many of the nation’s top club teams.

“The whole summer, I was going deeper into games. I was a lot more efficient,” Grant said.

ILH baseball is a different animal. Hawaii Elite pitching coach Ashkhon Kuhaulua first saw Grant pitch at the Hawaii Sandlot Classic in July 2020. He has worked personally with Grant after chatting with former Kamehameha standout Kewby Meyer.

“When we started working out he had a lot of the common inefficiencies with his throwing, but it was obvious that he had some real athleticism. His pitch arsenal has really improved. As Parker continues to get stronger, faster and more explosive, finding ways to manage the added depth and movement is going to be one of the bigger challenges he will have to overcome,” Kuhaulua said. “He reminds me of Jake Peavy. I’m hoping he can progress to pitch with the same intensity as Peavy did.”

Peavy won a Cy Young Award in 2007 with the San Diego Padres, then pitched for World Series champions in Boston and San Francisco.

Grant’s growth and development in the offseason was at a new level. Kansas made him an offer, and Grant accepted. The expectations are high, to say the least. After his shutout at ‘Iolani, he was even-keeled. Not celebratory in the least, but wondering just a bit what his dad, Kelly Grant, would say.

“I don’t know. ‘Good job’? I think he did say it. He’ll slip it in there sometimes, something small. ‘Good job today.’ He still critiques me,” Grant said of his father, a former three-sport athlete at Maryknoll and Pac-Five.

Parker Grant was a seventh grader when he began playing baseball for the Spartans. His father, the boys basketball coach and a physical education teacher at Maryknoll, had already coached his younger son in baseball and basketball.

“I first saw Parker pitch in middle school back when I was coaching intermediate at Maryknoll,” Aglipay said. “He’s a leader by example. He’s always been quiet, but the boys see how hard he works in the weight room and on the field. I think by him winning a couple of (state) basketball championships, he’s grown up a lot faster in regards to work ethic. He saw what it takes to win and brings that same mentality to baseball.”

On the hardwood, it was an unusual senior year in one sense: Parker spent all of the offseason on the mound, or in the weight room.

“I didn’t touch a basketball for months,” he said.

He returned and decided to play hoops for senior year on a Spartans team that had won the previous two state titles. Grant was voted to the All-Defensive team.

Shortly after basketball season was done, the baseball team headed to Maui for a preseason tournament.

“I’ve see the work that this team has put in. That Maui trip we had really bonded us more. It played a big role in having each other’s back, knowing that if you don’t get the job done, the next guy will get it done,” he said.

The where and how have always been blank lines for Maryknoll baseball. Logistics. The team practices at Parks and Recreation facilities at Moanalua, Waipio and Manoa Valley.

“It’s a big representation of our team and Maryknoll. We don’t need the best facilities and everything to compete with the best in the state. We just try and go out there and compete every game, be on the winning side,” Grant said.

Throughout the season, he sees his Hawaii Elite teammates scattered throughout the ILH. Among them is Kamehameha catcher Beau Sylvester, his battery mate for those elite mainland tournaments.

“He’s the toughest out for me. He’s caught me a lot because of Hawaii Elite. He knows how my pitches are thrown and he knows what I’m thinking. We kind of think alike in pitch sequence,” Grant said.

When Kamehameha lost to Maryknoll two weeks ago, Sylvester had two hits off Grant.

“They were singles, but they were hard hit,” Grant said.

Older brother Payton, named after late NFL great Walter Payton, is playing basketball at UH Hilo.

“My name was going to be Robinson, after Jackie Robinson, but my mom (Mia) said no,” Parker Grant said. “When my mom was in the hospital before I was born, they saw Parker McLachlin, the golfer, on TV or in the newspaper, and it’s a ‘P’ name, so …”

McLachlin is a former Punahou standout. Mia Grant attended Punahou as well, and so did her brother, her mother and aunties.

“My mom’s whole side went to Punahou,” Grant said. “My cousin Maya (Matsubara).”

Matsubara was a standout softball player for the Buffanblu. Payton Grant applied to Punahou, but played basketball for dad at Maryknoll. For Parker, it was the right fit. His former PAL baseball teammate from Manoa, Miles Quimuel-Labrador, gives the Spartans a 1-2 punch on the mound.

Graduation is around the corner. When Parker flies to Jayhawks country this summer, his parents will have an empty nest. Departure for Lawrence, Kan., will be a new chapter. At the airport, Mia, Parker says, will probably cry.

“I might, too,” he said.

PARKER GRANT FAVORITES

>> Did you know? Parker was 3 when he began playing in a tee-ball league for 4-year-olds. “My aunties tell me that I was actually 3. I was close to being 4. I don’t remember that, not at all.”

>> Class/teacher: World History, Mr. Ching

“Mr. Ching taught my sixth grade and eighth grade classes at Maryknoll. We would talk about life. He always believed in me, in everything in life.”

>> GPA: 3.49

>> Funniest teammate: “I wouldn’t say I have a funniest teammate, but my (Maryknoll) pitching coach (Scotty Peters) is funny. He doesn’t even try to make us laugh, but he keeps us relaxed. He’s a really good pitching coach.”

>> Smartest teammate: Miles Quimuel-Labrador. “His GPA is like a 4.3, 4.4. He’s going to play baseball at Washington University (in) Saint Louis and their acceptance rate is (low, 16 percent).”

>> Teammate most likely to coach: Nunu Hata. “He’s a great leader and he coaches up the younger guys on our team every day. He’s a big reason why we’re doing this well versus previous years.”

>> Movies/shows: “Ratatouille,” “Get Smart” and “Outer Banks”

“I love ‘Ratatouille.’ It’s always been in my childhood. I’ve see it over 100 times.”

>> Food: Ahi poke from Off The Hook (in Manoa), cheesecake and Vita Coco coconut water. “My auntie used to work at Red Lobster. She would give a whole cheesecake to our family, but I’d be the one eating it, basically.”

>> Music artists: J Boog, The Green, Lil Tecca

>> Teams/athletes—MLB: Milwaukee Brewers/Jacob deGrom; NBA: Chicago Bulls/Derrick Rose; NFL: Green Bay Packers/Aaron Rodgers