Rainbow Wahine pack plenty of power

By Fred Guzman

ESPN550.com

 

Because theirs is a so-called minor sport, the University of Hawaii softball team hasn't gotten the attention it richly deserves.

 

Despite rising to No. 25 national rankings while compiling records of 33-11 overall and 11-0 in the Western Athletic Conference, the Rainbow Wahine are the best-kept sports secret in the state.

 

Over the weekend, UH swept a three-game at Boise State, out-scoring the Lady Broncos 36-7 while slugging 17 homers. 

 

Guiding this offensive juggernaut is UH's coach of 19 years, Bob Coolen, who over the weekend claimed his 700^th career victory.

 

Interestingly, the bulk of the power for UH is coming mostly from a collection of youthful hitters lacking in bulk.

Freshman centerfielder Kelly Majam already has tied the WAC season record by hitting national-leading 23 homers.  Majan is all of 5-foot-3.

 

Freshman shortstop Jessica Iwata, a 5-foot-4 gem from Kauai, was named WAC hitter of the week after going 12-for-20 with six homers – including a pair of grand slams – and driving in 17 runs in five games.

 

For the season, Majam is batting .399 with 52 runs and 45 RBI.  Iwata is batting .398 with 13 homers 42 runs and 41 RBI. 

 

Three other have also reached double digits in homers. Melissa Gonzalez has 15, Amanda Taulii 11 and Jenna Rodriguez 10. For the season, UH has slugged a 106 homers in 44 games.  Wow.

 

 

UH BASEBALL:  Thanks to an outstanding mound outing by Alex Capaul, the University of Hawaii baseball team was able to avoid a sweep at the hands of Fresno State in a WAC-opening home series against the four-time defending champion.

 

The junior right-hander went the distance, scattering seven hits, in a 4-0 win over the Bulldogs as Collin Bennett drove in a pair of runs, staking Capaul to an early lead.

 

Fresno State survived a late rally to win Friday's series-opener 8-6, and then took both ends of Saturday's double-header by scores of 8-5 and 1-0 on a seven-inning no-hitter by Greg Gonzalez.

 

Hawaii is now 17-15 overall and 1-3 in the WAC.  Next on tap for the Rainbows are a pair of WAC road series.  UH faces Sacramento State starting Friday and visit LaTech the following week.

 

MIL BASEBALL: The stage is set for a baseball showdown between Baldwin and Maui High in a three-game series that will determine the MIL's D-I regular-season title.  Both teams are 8-1 as they open their key series on Thursday, with games also set for Friday and Saturday.  Each of the games is set for a 6 p.m. start.

 

UFC:   It was a dark day for two of Hawaii's most popular ultimate fighters as both BJ Penn of Hilo and Kendall Grove of Maui went down to defeat Saturday in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Erimates.

 

Suffering his first defeat as a lightweight in eight years, Penn lost his UFC title to Frankie Edgar, an 8-to-1 underdog, via a unanimous decision.. 

 

The five-round bout turned into a battle of jabs, with Edgar using an effective stick-and-move attack to stymie Penn.  The three judges scored the bout 50-45, 48-47 and 49-46 in favor of Edgar, who improved his career record to 12-1.

 

Penn, who had been 5-0 in his last five UFC lightweight bouts, dropped to 15-6-1. Penn was making the fourth defense of the 155-pound title.

 

On the undercard,  Mark Munoz defeated Kendall Grove via second round TKO in a middleweight, or 185-pound, bout.

 

Grove dominated the first round, dropping Munoz with an uppercut and then attempted several choke holds.  But Munoz survived the first and gained control in the second by working his way on top and then utilizing a ground-and-pound attack to finish the fight.

 

The referee stopped it at 2:50 into the second round.  Munoz improved to 8-1, while Grove dropped to 13-7-1.

 

In the other co-main event, Anderson Silva defeated fellow Brazilian Demian Maia by a lackluster unanimous decision to retain the UFC middleweight world title.

Baldwin settles for new softball stadium

By Fred Guzman

ESPN550.com

 

On the day that three members of Baldwin's softball program and their parents won a battle for improved facilities, the Bears suffered their first loss of the MIL season.

 

The governor's office released more than $1 million to build a new softball field on the Baldwin campus as part of an out-of-court settlement reached in a gender equity lawsuit.

 

The agreement ends a lawsuit filed by team members who alleged they were forced to practice and play at a sub-standard field while the baseball team played at Iron Maehara Stadium.

 

The lawsuit accused the state and Maui County of violating the girls' rights under the Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, also known as Title IX.  The settlement also calls for the state to pay the plaintiffs' lawyers $75,000 in attorneys fees.

 

State Deputy Attorney General John Cregor said that the new stadium at Baldwin should be completed in time for the 2012 season.  League games next year will be played at Maui High's Patsy Mink stadium.

 

Later in the day, Lahinaluna freshman Hope Morikawa limited Baldwin to four hits, with the Bears capitalizing on three Lunas' error in the bottom of the seventh to avoid the shutout.

 

The Lahainaluna win prevented Baldwin from clinching the D-I regular season title and a berth in the state tournament.  Baldwin dropped to 8-1 in the MIL, while the second-place Lunas improved to 5-3.

 

Meantime, Kamehameha junior Ginger Long has verbally committed to play volleyball at the University of Hawaii.  Molokai High standout Kalei Adolpho made a similar commitment to UH last year.

 

BASEBALL ROUNDUP:  For the second time in as many days, Kurt Suzuki came up big for the Oakland Athletics.

 

On Tuesday, the catcher from Maui slugged a solo homer in the fourth inning and then delivered a key 10^th-inning  hit at the expense of another Valley Island big-leaguer, reliever Kanekoa Texeira, to help the A's post a 2-1 win over Seattle.

 

On Wednesday, Suzuki was at it again.  His RBI double in the bottom of the ninth lifted Oakland to a 6-5 win. 

 

It was Suzuki's second run-scoring double of the game and upped his average to .364 three games into the young baseball season.  It was also the seventh game-winning hit in Suzuki's big-league career.

 

The two teams conclude their season-opening, four-game series today in Oakland, which is off to a 2-1 start.

 

Texeira, meantime, did not play the day after being pinned with a loss in his major-league debut. 

 

The right-hander came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning of that game and worked himself out of a bases-loaded jam.  He wasn't as fortunate in the decisive 10^th after giving up a two-out, game-winning hit to Mark Ellis.

 

Shane Victorino had a hit in three at-bats and walked once for Philadelphia in an 8-4 victory over Washington.  The Phils hold a 2-1 in the series that concludes today in the nation's capital.

Hawaii presence on opening day

By Fred Guzman

ESPN550.com

 

The major league baseball season got into full swing on Monday and several guys with Hawaii ties were in the mix.

 

Not the least of them was President Barrack Obama, the left-hander from Punahou who delivered the ceremonial first pitch in Washington's home game against the Phillies.  The president's offering was a bit high and an a bit outside.

 

Once the game began, it was all Phillies, who romped to an 11-1 victory over the Nationals.  The Phillies -- seeking to become the first National League team to three-peat since the St. Louis Cardinals in 1942, 1943 and 1944 – rode the contributions of a pair of newcomers to the lopsided win. 

 

New ace Roy Holladay allowed one run over seven innings while striking out nine.  Placido Polanco had three hits – including a grand slam homer – and drove in six runs in his Philly debut.  Maui's Shane Victorino, meantime, went 1-for-5, scoring a run and driving in another.

 

Things didn't go as well for the Oakland Athletics and catcher Kurt Suzuki.  Former Saint Louis School standout Brandon League pitched a scoreless eighth and was credited with the victory as Seattle scored twice in the top of the ninth for a 5-3 win. 

 

Suzuki was 0-for-3 at the plate, and struggled on the field, committing two errors and yielding three stolen bases while throwing out a pair of runners.

 

CAROUSEL:  There have been several significant changes in the local prep landscape in recent weeks.

 

The latest development:  Reliable sources have informed ESPN 550 that St. Anthony has made a change in athletic directors.   Al Paschoal has taken over for Charlie Pico, who originally served as football coach.  The Trojans no longer have a football program. 

 

Paschoal is a teacher at St. Anthony and also serves as the school's  volleyball coach.  But Pachoal's greatest success has come as the head coach of a traveling club volleyball team.

 

Although the hiring has not been officially announced by the school, ESPN 550 has been reporting since last week that Kamehameha-Maui has promoted Kevin O'Brien to head coach of the football team. 

 

O'Brien succeeds Leo Delatori, who stepped down last month after five years of the job.   O'Brien formerly served as head coach at St. Anthony and Pac Three. He has been teaching at Kamehameha for several years, serving on Delatori's staff during that span.

 

Earlier, PK Higa returned as head coach of the King Kekaulike football team after a 10-year hiatus.  Higa, who had been serving as an assistant vice principal at the school, replaced JW Kenton, who stepped down in February after four seasons.

 

BASEBALL: The Maui All-Star team got a lot more than it could handle in Sunday's championship game of the state AJA tournament.  The hometown Oahu team romped to a 19-3 win.

Texeira makes Mariners roster

By Fred Guzman

ESPN550.com

 

Given his sensational spring stats, the news was hardly surprising.  Still, it had to be a thrill for Kaneokoa Texeira, the kid from Kula, who yesterday learned he is about to become the third player from Maui to be wearing a big-league uniform on opening day of the baseball season.

 

The right-handed reliever's Grapefruit League numbers are dazzling. He is 1-0 with a 0.64 earned run average in 14 innings, allowing nine hits, one earned run, four walks and has eight strikeouts.

 

The 24-year-old Texeira, picked up by the Mariners from the Yankees via the Rule 5 draft, will join Philadelphia center fielder Shane Victorino and Oakland catcher Kurt Suzuki in the big league ranks.

 

Victorino, who signed a three-year, $22 million deal over the winter, batted .313 over 16 games this spring and is coming off a season during  which he garnered both All-Star and Gold Glove status. 

 

He appears to have adjusted well – if not happily -- to being dropped from second to seventh in the lineup, making way for off-season acquisition Placido Polano.  The veteran third baseman batted a blistering .375 this spring with a .407 on-base percentage.

 

Suzuki is penciled in to bat fifth in the A's lineup despite struggling at the plate this spring, batting .170 with two homers and eight RBI in 17 games.  Suzuki did lead the team in RBI last season with 88.

 

The Phillies open the season on Monday, visiting the Washington Nationals in a game that will be aired on Maui's ESPN 550 starting at 7:05 a.m.

 

Later that day, Seattle visits Oakland, with the chance of a pitcher from Maui facing a batter from Maui for the first time in a big league game.

 

UH SPRING DRILLS:  The names and faces are the same, but the football staff had a rearranged look when the University of Hawaii kicked off spring drills Tuesday.

 

Head coach Greg McMackin has promoted Nick Rolovich to offensive coordinator and Dave Aranda to defensive coordinator. 

 

Rolovich actually took over the play-calling duties from Ron Lee for the final 12 games last season.  Rolovich also will be in charge of the quarterbacks, working with incumbent starter Bryant Moniz, Shane  Austin and Brent Rausch.

 

After making all the defensive calls in his first season as head coach, McMackin began yielding play-calling duties to Aranda last year.  Aranda will also work with the linebackers.

 

The changes mean the roles of the Lee brothers have been reduced.

 

Cal Lee, who was defensive coordinator the past two yers, is now in charge of defensive ends.  Ron Lee, who was offensive coordinator, is now in charge of receivers.

 

Tony Tuioti, who was the director of player personnel, is now in charge of defensive tackles. And longtime assistant George Lumpkin will become director of player personnel.

 

More than 100 players will participate in the 15 days of practice over the next month. Spring training will conclude with the annual Warrior Bowl April 30 on the UH campus.