Though his arm ached, the glow of Keaau’s victory against Kealekehe in the BIIF semifinals hadn’t worn off yet when Keian Kanetani’s father gave him the bad news. Hilo had upset Waiakea in their semifinal, meaning the Cougars hadn’t yet clinched a berth to the HHSAA tournament that they had figured was there for the taking.
Keaau is still waiting on that elusive first trip to states after falling to the Vikings in the championship series, and the year might have hardly seemed complete if the Cougars and their catalyst Kanetani didn’t notch another milestone in a season that was marked by them.
Then the news came down Monday.
A season full of firsts for Keaau contained one more when Kanetani was voted BIIF baseball’s Division I Player of the Year. Herb Yasuhara has guided Keaau since its initial varsity season in 2002, but it took him 13 seasons until he saw fit to nominate one of his players for the honor.
“(Keian) helped hold the team together,” Yasuhara said.
The junior did so with his bat, arm and glove wearing No. 1 as the Cougars rode a wave of momentum all season.
“Even in the preseason, we were liking the game and putting in more,” Kanetani said. “We were having more fun than usual.”
Kanetani led the Cougars with a .581 average, 10 RBIs and six steals from the No. 3 spot in the lineup, and the right-hander went 3-1 with a 2.21 ERA on the mound for Keaau, which started 2-0 for the first time since 2008, won its first four games for the first time since 2002 and also went on the road to take down Waiakea, which it hadn’t done since 2002.
Kanetani would have pitched more, he struck out batters in 25 1/3 innings, but Yasuhara preferred to have him anchor the defense at shortstop while left-hander Justin Quesada toed the slab.
“I brought the team a captain on the field,” Kanetani said. “(Assistant) TJ Yasuhara would always tell me that I would set the tone on defense.”
The all-league voting was just as competitive as the season played out. Kanetani earned three first-place votes at utility, one more than Waiakea pitcher Makoa Andres. Warriors third baseman Caleb Freitas-Fields, outfielder Nathan Minami and shortstop Taylor Mondina each earned one vote, as did Hilo second baseman Noah Higa-Gonsalves and Kealakehe pitcher Pohaku Dela Cruz and outfielder Marcus Degrate.
Hilo freshman outfielder Micah Bello, Keaau catcher Derek Kalani and Waiakea first baseman Ryder Oshiro also made all-league.
While voting presumably was based on the regular season, Kanetani did his best work during the postseason, leading the Cougars to their first spot in the BIIF final. Kanetani earned both victories against the Waveriders on back-to-back days, pitching 10 1/3 innings, including the final 3 1/3 in the decisive Game 3. He led Keaau with three hits.
“My arm felt like it was going to fall off,” Kanetani said, “but I wasn’t going to give back the ball.”
Keaau faces an unquestioned experience gap when going up against Hilo and Waiakea, but that’s not the case with Kanetani. He started playing baseball at age 4, began learning under hitting guru Kaha Wong when he was 10 and worked his way up the ranks of PONY League.
“Other teams were still more experienced than us this year,” Kanetani said, “but we believed in ourselves.”
Herb Yasuhara was voted Coach of the Year, and Kanetani credited Keaau’s three young assistants – TJ Yasuhara, the coach’s son, RT Ebesu and Jensen Sato – with ushering energy into the program.
“Most of our success came from them,” Kanetani said.
The first two goals on his senior agenda are obvious ones: a first trip to states and a first BIIF title. The roadblocks will be the usual suspects. Hilo loses only two seniors, while Waiakea returns four of its five all-league players.
Kanetani will travel to the mainland this summer with James Hirayama’s Hilo RBI team.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get better,” Kanetani said. “I’m hitting the weight room to get bigger. I’ll start running hills every day, working with the sled.”