In another century, there was a cartoon character named Scrappy Doo — a playful pup and a fighter.
And I’m not trying to make light of Saint Louis third baseman Hunter Hirayama and the grit and hustle he shows, but I just can’t resist calling him Scrappy Doo.
Actually, the real story is I was just going to use the word scrappy to describe Hirayama, because, no doubt, he is. But when I googled for a synonym, up came good ol’ Scrappy Doo — Scooby Doo’s feisty nephew, and, so, there you go.
Perfect … to me, anyway.
How did the ol’ Scrapster do Saturday night in the ILH baseball championship game?
Scrappy Doo
Well, if this was hockey and there were three stars named after the game, Hirayama would have gotten the No. 2 star.No. 1, of course, would have gone to teammate and shortstop Aiea Arquette, who hit a double and a triple and scored both runs in a 2-1 victory over Punahou for the school’s first league baseball title since 2017.
What Hirayama DID was a little bit of everything and with a whole lot of fire and effort.
We’ll start with the smaller stuff. He beat out an infield hit in the third, but wound up getting stranded on third.
Then, with Saint Louis looking for someone to pitch in the later innings, coach George Gusman was pretty much out of his depleted regular staffers. So he turned to Hirayama with no outs in the fifth, and the Scrapster — all 5-8, 165 pounds of him — wound up going three innings and giving up just one hit and no runs for the victory.
But, more importantly, Hirayama made a play that swung the momentum to his team’s favor, something that captains like himself are known for doing. The play we’re talking about came in Punahou’s top of the sixth with two out and a runner on second base in a 1-1 game.
When the Buffanblu’s Cody Oshiro hit a super hard bounder back to Hiryama, it hit his glove, but the dude — our protagonist, if you will — sprinted as fast as he could about four steps to his right to pick up the ball and gun it to first to get the out.
That saved Punahou from having runners on first and third and possibly taking the lead.
Saint Louis third baseman and pitcher Hunter Hirayama and his Crusaders teammates
are 2021 ILH baseball champions. (Bedrock Sports Hawaii photo by Nick Abramo).
“Hunter loves playing,” Gusman said. “He loves his teammates. He just got an offer from Saint Mary’s (a Division I school) in Moraga, California, and he committed. I’m just happy they recognized him. He’s not the biggest guy, but he’s a player. At third, he’s (always) talking to an entire infield and encouraging our pitchers. That’s just who he is.
“The win wasn’t pretty and it was a little bit of smoke and mirrors as far as our pitching was concerned. We had a whole bunch of guys who haven’t pitched a lot. It came down to one break and we were fortunate.”
The break came right after Hirayama’s hustle play — in the bottom of the sixth, when Arquette doubled and eventually scored what turned out to be the winning run on Makamae’s Dupont’s squeeze bunt.
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Hirayama credited assistant coach Scott Paiva with preparing him for that outstanding play he made.
“Coach Scott helps us out a lot,” Hiryama said. “We do these drills where we run up and he tosses the ball off our chests and he says, ‘Don’t panic, pick up the ball and make a good throw every time.’ We did that the whole season and it works. I didn’t hesitate. I knew I had a chance, throwing it to our first baseman Xander Sielekn, who I knew was going to get it no matter what. We call him the ATM.
“We came out on top. We have an amazing coaching staff and I have amazing teammates,” Hirayama said.
