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In Saturday’s perfect ending to an intriguing baseball season, second baseman Stone Miyao drilled a walk-off, two-run homer in Hawaii’s 13-11 victory over UC Santa Barbara in front of what remained of a sold-out crowd at Les Murakami Stadium.
The self-styled “party at the Les” celebrated the five seniors in the final UH game and completion of the Rainbow Warriors’ second consecutive winning records overall (29-20) and in the Big West (18-12). But there also were some what-if thoughts of a season that might have ended too soon.
UH coach Rich Hill noted the ’Bows suffered six one-run losses to Big West opponents. Win half of them, Hill said, and the ’Bows would have claimed the Big West’s regular-season title and the accompanying automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
The ’Bows also won seven of their final nine, knocking off UCSB from title and postseason consideration in the weekend’s three-game sweep. But without a postseason tournament, the Big West does not reward a team that finishes strongly but not first. The Big West sets its master schedule in two-year cycles. There won’t be a postseason tournament until 2025, at the earliest. If there were a four- or five-team Big West Tournament this year, UH would have qualified as the fourth seed. (Champion UC San Diego is ineligible for postseason play while transitioning to Division I.)
“It’s about taking that next step,” said Hill, who is 57-44 in his two UH seasons.
In large part to Hill, pitching coach Mathew Troupe, hitting coach Dave Nakama and recruiting coordinator Dan Cox, the ’Bows were creative in patching voids created with the departures of left fielder Scotty Scott and center fielder Cole Cabrera to graduation and all three primary starting pitchers at the end of the 2022 season.
Matt Wong, a sixth-year senior, moved back to center after a year in right. The ’Bows started seven different players in left field. One of the seven, Ben Zeigler-Namoa, began the season as a two-way player. But after his last mound appearance on May 3, he batted .341 as an outfielder and first baseman. He finished the season at .301.
Wong and first baseman/designated hitter Jacob Igawa are the only position players who exhausted their UH eligibility. There are numerous options for the ’Bows, who started 46 different lineups. Miyao hit .356 in 28 Big West games. Outfielder Sean Rimmer, who hit 18 home runs at Yavapai College last year, entered the UCSB series hitting .241. But in two starts against the Gauchos, he went 5-for-7. Kyson Donahue, who played five positions this year, hit .294 with seven home runs.
UH signed Hilo High outfielder Devin Saltiban, who is considered the No. 1 prospect in Hawaii, and Kamehameha shortstop Elijah Ickes, who is a candidate for player of the year.
The ’Bows also were able to construct a pitching strategy centered around Harry Gustin, Randy Abshier, Harrison Bodendorf, Alex Giroux and Connor Harrison. Gustin missed most of his freshman season in 2022 after suffering a broken bone in his left (pitching) hand. But he rebounded to go 5-3 with a 3.13 ERA. In Thursday’s start, Gustin struck out a career-high nine in five innings.
Abshier, who was a reliever at Arizona before transferring to UH last summer, was 6-3 in 15 starts. Bodendorf, a freshman left-hander, and Giroux had a success as starters and relievers, sometimes used in both roles in the same series.
Gustin, as a draft-eligible sophomore, and Abshier, who has a season of UH eligibility remaining, have options with next month’s Major League Baseball draft of first-year players and ensuing free-agent period. Bodendorf, Giroux, Harrison and hard-throwing Matthew Flores could fill starting roles.
The ’Bows have commitments from 15 pitchers, including Aiden Joaquin of Waimea High, Brayden Marx of Pleasant Grove High (Utah), and Brynner Waiolama of North Torrance High (Calif.).
The most intriguing 2024 prospect is Itsuki Takemoto, a two-way player from Japan. Super agent Don Nomura alerted Cox to Takemoto, one of Japan’s highest-rated prospects. Takemoto, who throws right-handed and bats left-handed, has five pitches: cutter, slider, curve, change-up and a fastball that touches 92 mph.
At the Perfect Game All-American Scrimmage at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field last July, Takemoto struck out six of the nine batters he faced. Takemoto graduated from Chiben Wakayama High in December, and was enrolled at UH during the recently completed spring semester. He will play for the Portland Pickles of the Great West League this summer.
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