Posted on: Wednesday, May 30, 2007
HOMEGROWN REPORT
5 from Hawai'i in NCAA baseball
By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Regionals for the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship begin this weekend. Five teams with Hawai'i players are still competing in the postseason:
Long Beach State (37-18) sophomore catcher Kip Masuda (Mid-Pacific '05) played in 23 of 55 games, with 14 starts, and is batting .135 (7 for 52).
San Diego (43-16) freshman catcher Stuart Kam (Kamehameha '06) has not played this season.
Brown (27-19) junior outfielder/designated hitter J.J. Eno (Baldwin '04) played in 32 of 46 games with 21 starts. He is batting .300 (24 for 80) with two doubles, two home runs and 10 RBIs.
Miami (36-22) sophomore outfielder Nick Freitas (Kamehameha '05) played in 37 of 57 games, with four starts. He is batting .133 (4 for 30), with one double and one RBI.
Creighton (44-14) junior infielder Michael Lam (Punahou '04) is third on the team with a .331 batting average (39 for 118). He has 39 hits, with 11 doubles and 16 RBIs.
MORE BASEBALL
San Diego State junior shortstop Troy Hanzawa (Mid-Pacific '03) and Brigham Young senior utility player/designated hitter Apana Nakayama (Moloka'i '00) were named to the Mountain West Conference second team.
Nakayama and BYU first baseman Kasey Ko (Punahou '06) were named to the all-tournament team for the conference championships.
Creighton junior infielder Michael Lam (Punahou '04) was named to the all-tournament team for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
Lam was named the MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week on May 25. He was honored for his May 14-20 performance, when he batted .308 (4 for 13) with a double, RBI and two runs scored. Lam has a 3.613 cumulative grade-point average in biology/pre-medicine.
Four Southern Utah baseball players from Hawai'i were named to all-Mid Continent Conference teams.
Sophomore third baseman Chester Wilson (Saint Louis '05) was named to the first team and sophomore second baseman Keli'i Zablan (Saint Louis '05), freshman first baseman Bucky Aona (Punahou '06) and freshman pitcher Alec Reichle (Kaua'i '04) were second-team selections.
Wilson, who was named the Mid-Con co-Player of the Week April 30, batted .302 with 10 doubles, six home runs and 28 RBIs. Aona batted a team-best .337 with 17 runs, four doubles, four home runs and 25 RBIs.
Zablan batted .271 with nine doubles, two triples, two home runs and 23 RBIs, and Reichle (3-3) had a 3.28 ERA.
Chemeketa J.C. (Salem, Ore.) catcher Sheldon Santiago (Saint Louis '05) was named to the all-Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges Southern Region second team.
Santiago finished the season batting .322 with 32 RBIs, 13 doubles and five home runs.
Central Arizona JC, with freshman outfielder C.J. Johnson ('Iolani '06), dropped two games to Western Nevada to finish second in the Western District tournament.
Johnson batted .320 with 13 doubles, three triples, one home run and 35 RBIs this season.
SOFTBALL
Brigham Young junior outfielder Emi Snow (Kamehameha '04) was named to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-West Region second team.
Snow hit a career-high 16 home runs, and was third on the squad with 60 hits and second with a .663 slugging percentage.
Eastern Kentucky freshman third baseman Shyenne Hussey (Kailua '06 of Waimanalo) was selected to the Ohio Valley Conference second team and all-Newcomer team.
Hussey led the team in batting average (.378), hits (65), doubles (13), home runs (8) and RBIs (43).
MEN'S SWIMMING
California junior Mark Eckert ('Iolani '04) received the Coaches Award at the team's awards banquet.
Eckert was an honorable mention All-American and the Pac-10's third-fastest swimmer in the 400 individual medley.
WOMEN'S GOLF
Puget Sound (Wash.) senior Emily Lau ('Iolani '03) earned National Golf Coaches Association All-America honorable-mention honors. Men's Tennis
Claremont-McKenna College (Calif.) freshman Mikey Lim (Punahou '06) was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association West Region Player to Watch.
WOMEN'S TENNIS
Occidental (Calif.) senior Kelly Hasegawa (Hilo) received the 2007 Occidental Senior Scholar Athlete award.
Hasegawa is a four-time All-SCIAC first-team selection. She was named the West region winner of the Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship.
COMMITMENTS
Three Hawai'i wrestlers will continue their careers in the 2007-08 collegiate season, according to Intermatwrestle.com: Kamehameha's Kazden Ikehara to Air Force, 'Iolani's James Fitzpatrick to Wabash (Crawfordsville, Ind.) and Punahou's Kenny White to Stanford.
Kamehameha-Maui swimmer Megan Takakura signed with Mesa State College (Colo.). In notes in the release, Takakura is said to have "amazing, all-around talent from the Aloha state. Megan was our first and earliest commitment. Dominant in all events, Megan can be called on when needed. Shows national promise in the breaststroke and individual medley events."
'Iolani's Kon Weber will run for the California cross country and track and field teams, according to his father, Robert Weber.
Mililani's D'Andre Benjamin, who won the state 110- and 300-meter hurdles this month, will attend Seattle University, according to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Web site.
Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.
