Loyola Marymount's Lauren Hiramoto had the game of her life in the Lions' regular-season finale against San Diego.
Going out with a bang
Lauren Hiramoto went 3-for-4
in her final regular-season home
game for Loyola Marymount
For almost her entire career on the Loyola Marymount (Los Angeles) University softball team, Lauren Hiramoto has been on base.
By the numbersLAUREN HIRAMOTO
Hiramoto started a game against Tokyo on March 18 in the University of Hawaii tournament, but it was an exhibition and did not count in the statistics
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She was used almost exclusively as a pinch runner the past four seasons, playing in 148 games, but batting only 25 times.
Until the last home game of her senior year last Sunday.
Loyola Marymount coach Gary Ferrin started all nine of the Lions' seniors in the second game of a doubleheader against San Diego.
Hiramoto the Runner turned into Hiramoto the Hitter, going 3-for-4 to equal her career hits total, and getting her first RBI in three years.
"It was kind of a rush when they announced the lineup before the second game," Hiramoto recalled yesterday.
"They had introduced the nine seniors and given us flowers between games. My mom flew up and brought a lei."
All that was scheduled, but getting to start was a surprise.
Hiramoto played right field and batted ninth. She beat out an infield hit to the right side, beat out a bunt and drove a solid single to center field to drive in the seventh LMU run in a 7-0 victory.
She even caught a fly ball in right field -- her first putout in 35 games this season.
"It was really neat," she said of the experience.
She called her father, Stacy, a veteran high school and club coach on Oahu, and exclaimed, "Dad, I lead the team in batting (.500, 3-for-6)."
Hiramoto has learned some hard but valuable lessons as a college athlete.
She started four years for Punahou and was a second-team Interscholastic League of Honolulu all-star first baseman in 2001 (she batted .449 her senior year and was an All-State honorable mention selection).
Riding the bench most of the time in college was a major adjustment for Hiramoto.
"My freshman year was really difficult," she said. "I had never experienced not starting.
"I thought about transferring, but I liked the school."
Sticking it out, she said, has "taught me to persevere and not quit."
The rewards of not quitting likely will include being a part of Loyola Marymount's first trip to an NCAA softball regional next month.
The Lions are 14-2 in the Pacific Coast Conference and need to win one of four games at Sacramento State this weekend to clinch LMU's first championship and postseason bid.
Hiramoto, a four-year recipient of national scholar-athlete awards, will graduate next week (May 7) with a degree in marketing and management.
Next on her agenda (after the NCAAs):
"Find a job."
Killam, Tiogangco overcome
obstacles at Northwest
championships
Two Hawaii athletes overcame major obstacles last Saturday to win Northwest Conference track and field championships.Willamette (Ore.) sophomore Carly Killam (Punahou, '03, of Kailua) won the women's 1,500-meter title after being bumped off the track and into the infield.
When she scrambled back onto the track, Killam found herself 50 meters behind the leaders. But she tapped some extra energy source and rallied to win in the final 10 meters, said Cherisse Stumpf, assistant sports information director at Willamette.
Meanwhile, over at the pole-vault pit, Linfield senior Dayson Tiogangco (Hilo, '01, of Papaikou) won his second NWC championship with a hand that had been mangled in a pottery lab accident a month earlier.
Tiogangco had been unable to practice serious vaulting since the accident but also summoned inner strength to overcome the pain and win.
"It was brutal, but he did it," said his roommate, Abram Thalhofer of Bellingham, Wash. "He sucked it up and took care of business."
Neither Killam nor Tiogangco had their best marks of the season, understandably.
But Killam's speed burst brought her home in 4 minutes, 51.55 seconds, less than 2 seconds off her best of 4:49.84.
Willamette's Karly Killam, far right, led the pack in the 1,500-meter run at the Northwest Conference track and field championships last weekend at McMinnville, Ore. The Punahou grad won the race despite being bumped off the track and into the infield.
"I think she was shook up by the incident in the 1,500," Stumpf said.
Tiogangco reclaimed his vault title (he won it as a freshman in 2002) at a height of 14-feet, 5 1/4 inches. Three days before his injury he had vaulted a career-best 15-2 1/4.
Other Hawaii athletes in the Northwest Conference meet included:
Linfield sprinter Brad Lau (Hawaii Prep, '04, of Kamuela), who was ninth (22.98) in the 200 and 12th (11.43) in the 100, and Pacific freshman Caitlyn Tateishi (Waiakea, '04, of Pahoa), who was 16th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 13:03.74.
» Washington junior Lauran Dignam (Iolani, '02, of Aina Haina), who has been battling a bad hamstring again this season, was part of a 4x400 relay team than won the Oregon Invitational last Saturday in 3 minutes, 44.58 seconds -- ninth fastest in Huskies history.
Dignam finished third in the 200 in 25.08 at the meet in Eugene. Dignam, who won five gold medals in the HHSAA state meet in 2002 and holds Washington's 400-meter record, has not qualified for the postseason so far this year.
Akau, Ma finish strong at
conference tournaments
Idaho junior Christian Akau and Oregon sophomore Matt Ma, former rivals in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, both finished fast with sub-par rounds in their conference championship golf tournaments this week. But both started slowly and wound up behind the leaders.
Akau (Kamehameha, '02, of Kailua) was chosen second-team All-Big West Conference after he tied for 16th at 3-over-par 219 (77-73-69) in the championship event at Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
Teammate Gabe Wilson (Waiakea, '03) finished 14th, a stroke ahead of Akau at 218 (76-71-71).
Ma (Iolani, '02, of Aiea) was 3 under for the final three rounds of the Pac-10 Conference Championship that ended yesterday at Walla Walla, Wash.
But Ma could not make up for a first-round 75 and tied for 14th at 1-over 285 (75-71-69-70), ending his string of top-11 finishes at four.
Ma birdied three of his last five holes on Tuesday to get to 2-under 69 and leaped from 33rd to 18th place.
He tied for second earlier this month at the U.S. Intercollegiate tournament at Stanford, matching his best collegiate finish of 1-under-par 209.
"Matt has been in a real solid groove for the last four tournaments," Oregon coach Steve Nosler said then. "It's really exciting to see him getting into that zone."
Akau and Wilson shot collegiate lows of 67 and 68, respectively, in their last match before the Big West at the Wyoming Cowboy Classic at Scottsdale, Ariz., on April 12.
Akau tied for 16th with 72-74-67--213 and Wilson tied for 40th at 74-75-68--217.
Among Hawaii golfers in other conference championships:
» Pepperdine senior Rachel Kyono (Kauai, '01, of Lawai) tied for third and San Francisco senior Mariko Joan Shimozaki (Seabury Hall, '01, of Kihei) finished sixth in the West Coast Conference tournament at Copperopolis, Calif.
Kyono was 10-over-par 226 after shooting 77-74-75 and Shimozaki was 12-over 228 with her rounds of 76, 75 and 77. Each earned a fourth All-WCC citation.
Gonzaga freshman Sarah Sheffield (Keaau, '04) finished far back at 258 (79-91-88).
Pepperdine (Kyono) and San Francisco (Shimozaki) were named Monday to the field for NCAA regional tournaments May 5-7, as was Nebraska senior Merynn Ito (Aiea, '01) who was selected as an individual.
Pepperdine will play in the East regional at Gainesville, Fla., San Francisco is in the West regional at Las Cruces, N.M., and Ito as an individual in the Central Regional at Lubbock, Texas.
» Ito tied for 30th in the Big 12 women's tournament with a 21-over 237 (78-82-77) at the University of Texas in Austin.
» Idaho freshman Kelly Nakashima (Baldwin, '04) finished 11th in the Big West Conference women's tournament last week by shooting 76-81-78--235 at Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. She received honorable mention All-Big West.
» San Francisco redshirt freshman Moses Kahalekulu (Baldwin) tied for 17th in the West Coast Conference men's championship after shooting 12-over 74-75-79--228 at Copperopolis, Calif.
» Loyola Marymount junior Chaz Inouye (St. Anthony, '02) finished 31st and Gonzaga freshman Reyn Tanaka (Mid-Pacific, '04, of Kailua) was 34th in the same event. Inouye's scores were 78-79-79--236 and Tanaka's were 79-79-80--238.
It was a big fall for Inouye, who finished third in the WCC in 2004 and was conference Freshman of the Year in 2003.
» Long Island University (New York) sophomore Erica Chong (Hilo, '03) finished 17th in the Northeast Conference at 91-81--172. LIU won the team title at Frederick, Md.
Last year, Chong finished seventh and made the all-conference team. She also starts for the LIU women's soccer team.
» Pacific Lutheran (Washington) junior Kurt Inouye (Kauai , '01, of Kapaa) tied for fifth in the Northwest Conference for the second year in a row with his 73-74-76--223 at Blue River, Ore., and made the All-NWC team.
» Puget Sound sophomore Emily Lau (Iolani, '03, of Nuuanu) finished second and Lewis & Clark senior Mari Kotake (Punahou, '01, of Kaimuki) took fourth in the Northwest Conference women's championship at Sisters, Ore.
Lau shot 82-77--159 and Kotake 83-80--160 and both were included on the all-conference team.
Kotake won the NWC championship in 2002, when she was chosen national Freshman of the Year for NCAA III by the National Golf Coaches Association.
» New Mexico State sophomore Lehua Wise (Kauai, '03) tied for 18th in the Sun Belt Conference tournament by shooting 81-81-74--236. She was chosen to the all-conference team.
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