Hawaii Grown: College Athletics
Al Chase
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Yamaguchi leads Bearcats
Grant Yamaguchi (Mid-Pacific '03 ) is having a solid senior season for the Willamette Bearcats. The 6-foot-2 first baseman leads the team with a .337 (28-for-83) batting average and has four doubles, two triples and 12 RBIs. His command of the strike zone is evident, with 10 walks and 10 strikeouts
Kelsey Nakata (Mililani '05), a sophomore right-hander, is 1-2 with a 4.35 earned-run average as a reliever.
Scott Martin (Punahou '06), a freshman right-hander who has started one game for the Bearcats, is 0-2 with a 3.48 ERA.
» Keoni Ruth (Kamehameha '03) transferred from the NCAA Division I University of San Diego Toreros to the Concordia-Irvine Eagles, an NAIA team in the Golden State Athletic Conference this year. The senior middle infielder is hitting .327 with seven doubles, one triple, a homer and 14 RBIs in 30 games.
Last Saturday in a doubleheader sweep of Westmont, Ruth was 5-for-7 with two doubles, a triple and six runs scored.
Ruth was drafted by the Chicago Cubs last June in the seventh round, but did not sign.
» Darin Miyake is one of the Eagles assistant coaches. He pitched and played the infield for Joey Estrella's Hawaii-Hilo Vulcans. Miyake, the first-base coach and a 2001 UHH graduate, is working on his Masters in Coaching and Athletic Administration at Concordia.
» Jason Peters (Kaiser), a senior right-hander, is part of Cal State Stanislaus' starting rotation. In seven starts he is 2-2 with a 4.05 ERA. He's walked 10 and fanned 27 in 40 innings.
» Jared Pate (Punahou '05), a right-handed pitcher at UC Irvine, is sitting out this season after having surgery on his right arm in November.
"We hope he is back next season," said Anteaters coach Dave Serrano.
» Colby Ho (Kaiser '06), a third baseman, is the second leading hitter for the Merced College Blue Devils with a .400 average. Two other freshmen from Kaiser, center fielder Scott Uehara and shortstop Andrew Uehara, are hitting .254 and .246, respectively. Allen Komori (Kalani '05), a sophomore reliever, is 0-2.
Hogue turns to coaching
Becky Hogue (Punahou '03) will be the varsity girls basketball coach at Cheshire Academy this fall. She also will teach English and American Literature at the Connecticut prep school. Hogue (Punahou '03) graduates in May from Columbia, where she was a forward on the Lions basketball team for two years.
» Miki Nakamura (Kamehameha '06) switched to the basketball court after soccer season last fall and started 12 of 22 games for the Grinnell (Iowa) College Pioneers. The 5-foot-5 freshman guard was second in steals with 22 and averaged 3.0 points a game.
» Aaron Kanno (Mililani '05), a 5-foot-10 sophomore guard, averaged 2.9 points per game in 28 appearances for the 19-10 Holy Names (Calif.) Hawks.
» Matt Heyd (Baldwin '06), a 6-0 freshman guard, averaged 3.8 ppg as a reserve in 23 games for the 5-20 University of La Verne (Calif.) Leopards.
Ching, Nagata honored
Megan Ching (Kamehameha '03) and Chelsea Nagata (Maui '04) were two of 16 athletes honored at the 2007 Big West Conference scholar-athlete banquet on March 8 for outstanding academics as well as their athletic achievements.
Ching, a senior at Cal State Northridge, played guard for the Matadors basketball team.
Nagata, a junior at UC Irvine, is an All-American swimmer for the Anteaters.
» Egen Atkinson (Iolani '06), a freshman on the Harvard water polo team, was named to the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches 2006 Men's All-American Academic Team. He met the 3.2-or-better grade-point average criteria, according to a posting on the Crimson's Web site.