Chaminade baseball coach Chad Konishi announced the 19 members of his first-ever recruiting class of the relaunched Silverswords baseball program on Monday.
Chaminade first fielded an intercollegiate baseball team in 1980. That team, under the stewardship of Leroy Goo, went 20-6 and earned a berth in the NAIA District 2 Playoffs. Despite the success, the program was dropped to club level status in 1981 due to budgetary restrictions, before being disbanded altogether a year later.
After a 40-year absence, the program returns with local recruits, including Mid-Pacific pitcher Reyn Kapua, Saint Louis catcher and first baseman Ezekiel Ribuca, Saint Louis pitcher and infielder Jacob Villacorte, and Olympic College and 2019 Kalani pitcher Max Patterson.
The class also includes outfielders Jackson Dorn, Jacob Harper and Jacob Ogden, first baseman Jackson Peper, infielders Yuito Asai, Andrew Karns and Evon Williams, catcher Luke Anzelloti, pitchers Bryan Fernandez, Jasper McGrath and Xavier Stoker and combo players in pitcher/outfielder Brayden Braga, pitcher/catcher Rhyn Chambers, pitcher/outfielder Luke Grakal and catcher/first baseman Kaimana Martinez.
HPU wins PacWest Hawaii Challenge
Hawaii Pacific has claimed their fifth PacWest Hawaii Challenge title, outscoring fellow local Division II rivals Chaminade and Hawaii Hilo in the 2022-23 academic calendar.
The PacWest Hawaii Challenge is composed of nine sports in which all three schools participate. Women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s tennis, men’s golf and softball all factor into the final tally.
Points are awarded for head-to-head matchups in the applicable sports. A win is worth two points, one point is awarded for a tie, while a loss nets nothing. At the end of the regular season, the team with the highest total gets three points, the second-highest gets two, and the third-place finisher gets one. For sports without consistent regular-season matchups like cross country, golf, and tennis, points are awarded in the order of finish at the PacWest Championships.
In this year’s edition of the challenge, the winner wasn’t determined until the final competition of the year. Hawaii Pacific swept Chaminade in softball, giving the Sharks 22 points on the year and a narrow win over UH Hilo (21 points). Along with softball, HPU also took first-place points in women’s cross country, women’s basketball and women’s tennis. Hilo claimed first-place points in men’s and women’s soccer, men’s basketball and men’s golf. Chaminade (13 points) finished first in women’s volleyball.
