Thought filling out those NCAA Tournament brackets was tough? Try predicting the outcome of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu baseball race. ILH baseball race
tough to predictBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comThe madness begins for the league's eight teams tomorrow with no clear favorite emerging from the preseason, which should make the ILH title chase as entertaining as ever.
"It depends on the matchups and who's on," Mid-Pacific coach Dunn Muramaru said. "It comes down to a lot of little factors. Nobody can really foretell how it's going to be."
Maryknoll and Mid-Pacific officially open the season at noon in the first game of a tripleheader at Ala Wai Field. Punahou faces Iolani in the second game at 3 p.m. and St. Louis plays Pac-Five at 6. Kamehameha and Damien meet at 1 p.m. at Joey Desa Field.
St. Louis enters the ILH schedule coming off a strong finish to the preseason. The Crusaders beat Mid-Pacific to win the Dick Kitamura Tournament title two weeks ago, and claimed the championships of last week's Trojan Invitational with a 1-0 win over Roosevelt on Sunday.
The Crusaders feature one of the deepest pitching staffs in the league, led by senior right-hander Guy McDowell and junior lefty Kaimi Mead.
"They can put a quality guy on the mound every day," Muramaru said. "So they'll always be in the ballgame."
Mid-Pacific and Iolani are scrambling to replace two injured starters. Mid-Pacific lost one of its most productive hitters when all-state second baseman Isaac Omura suffered a knee injury.
"I'm not even counting on him (coming back)," Muramaru said. "That's how you have to do it. If he comes back, it's gravy."
The Owls will try to defend their ILH championship with just two starters -- senior catcher Matt Inouye and first baseman/pitcher Ryan Basco -- returning to the lineup.
The Owls must also replace Ricky Bauer, last year's pitcher of the year. Basco was second in the Owls' rotation last season and seniors Patrick McGuigan and Justin Pate also gave MPI quality starts a year ago.
"It's a different ballclub," Muramaru said. "We're super young and a lot of things happened this preseason, so we're just trying to get ready for the games one by one."
Iolani battled MPI for the league title last year, and the Raiders feature one of the state's top hitters in Kila Ka'aihue.
The Raiders lost another big bat when Ka'aihue's brother, Kala, broke his foot last weekend. Junior Reid Saito will take over at catcher while Kala Ka'aihue heals, and Iolani coach Dean Yonamine looks for senior outfielders Reed Tanaka and Jay Marcouiller to set the table for Kila.
"We're going to have to scrap for runs," Yonamine said. "Hopefully we can get Kila in a situation where teams have to pitch to him and he can drive in a few for us."
Pitching could be the Raiders' strength with seniors Rich Olsen, Chris Loo and Tyler McCready taking the mound. McCready is still working into pitching shape after helping the Iolani basketball team win the state championship last month.
Kamehameha also has the talent to contend for the title. The Warriors won the last two ILH junior varsity championships and have two of the league's fastest players in outfielders Tyler Perkins and Keoni Ruth.
Punahou will look to return to prominence this season with several players who were part of the team that won the Babe Ruth World Series last summer.
Pac-Five made a late season run a year ago to finish third in the ILH tournament. Maryknoll and Damien proved to be scrappy teams last season and could trip up teams looking past them.
"It's good to have a lot of parity because every team has to play everybody hard," Yonamine said. "You can't save pitchers for the next game, because you might get upset by somebody."