Aaron Ujimori saw his freshman year derailed well before the pandemic halted last year’s college baseball season.
The Hawaii second baseman earned an opening-night start against Hawaii Hilo last February and contributed two sacrifice bunts and a stolen base in his collegiate debut. But his night — and season — ultimately ended with a thumb injury that would require surgery. A little more than a month into his recovery, the spread of COVID-19 shut down the season.
All of which adds to Ujimori’s appreciation for each start in the field or turn at bat this spring.
“I’m just happy to be back out after the one game that I played last year,” Ujimori said. “I was really itching to get back out there and just play again … not really worried about too much, just have fun and go out there and play, and I feel like this team as a whole has really done a nice job with that.”
Ujimori, an ‘Iolani graduate, has split starts at second base with fellow freshman Stone Miyao in the Rainbow Warriors’ first two series this season and enters this weekend’s four-game series with UH Hilo hitting a team-high .444 through seven games.
“We’re excited for Aaron in that he’s back, and with him and Stone together, that’s a great combo at second base,” UH coach Mike Trapasso said.
“Uji can hit a fastball and he just brings a maturity and situational awareness to every game. He’s a very smart, very intelligent player. He’s got a tremendous baseball IQ.”
In his first game back, Ujimori faced a hard-throwing reliever in the ninth inning of UH’s opener at No. 15 Arizona State and delivered a sacrifice fly to drive in the go-ahead run in the Rainbows’ 3-2 victory. The following day he went 2-for-5 with an RBI in a 9-6 loss to the Sun Devils to close the series.
In two starts against Hawaii Pacific last weekend, Ujimori went 6-for-9 to contribute to a UH attack that scored 46 runs in a four-game sweep of the Sharks.
“It was a nice weekend, but … we’re always focused on the next series,” Ujimori said. “Try not to get too high, not too low throughout this year. It’s gonna be a long season and I know there’s going to be a lot of ups and a lot of downs, so (we’re) just trying to stay even keel.”
With the Big West opening series against Long Beach State a week away, the schedule for this weekend will follow that of a typical conference series with single games today and Sunday and a doubleheader on Saturday at Les Murakami Stadium.
“The difference this weekend to this past weekend will be just the format will mirror what we’re dealing in conference play with the doubleheader,” Trapasso said. “So logistically we want to try to mirror what we’ll be doing all season in the conference. So the goal again is to go out and play as many guys as we can but to also try to get used to this.”
Aaron Davenport (2-0, 1.93 earned-run average), who struck out 13 in his start against HPU a week ago, is slated to open the series for the Rainbows, followed by Cade Halemanu (0-0, 4.70) and Austin Teixeira (2-0, 0.00) in Saturday’s doubleheader, with Sunday’s starter yet to be determined. Trapasso said senior Logan Pouelsen, who sat out the first two weekends with a tender arm, could make his season debut on Sunday depending on how he responds to a Thursday bullpen session.
UH Hilo is expected to counter with a sizable rotation starting with 6-foot-5 senior Brandyn Lee-Lehano today and junior college transfers Cameron Scudder (6-5) and Jonathan Buhl (6-4) on Saturday. Junior Kyle Alcorn (6-2) is slated to start Sunday.
The ’Bows swept a season-opening series with the Vulcans last season, pulling out a 5-4 win on Dustin Demeter’s walk-off home run in the opener, then rallying for a 6-4 win in the finale.
“They played us close last year, so I wouldn’t doubt that they come out punching again,” Ujimori said.
College Baseball
At Les Murakami Stadium
Hawaii Hilo (0-0) at Hawaii (5-2)
>> When: Today, 6:35 p.m.; Saturday (doubleheader), 1:05 p.m.; Sunday, 1:05 p.m.
>> TV: Spectrum Sports
>> Radio: 1420-AM / 92.7-FM
