HONOLULU — It took a game against his old team for Chad Konishi to finally feel at home at Les Murakami Stadium.
Konishi, a former Hawaii assistant coach who now heads up the resurrected program at Chaminade, took a moment to reminisce on the stadium’s turf field after his Silverswords hung with the Rainbow Warriors for most of Tuesday night’s 2-0 UH victory.
“Really nice to be back in the first base dugout, right?” said Konishi, who was UH associate head coach and pitching coach under Mike Trapasso. “When we were here, we were in the first base dugout. It’s awesome.”
It was as close to a feel-good loss as possible for Chaminade (15-29), which has taken its lumps this season with an exceptionally young roster of 22 players who were in high school at this time last year.
UH (20-14), meanwhile, took any win it could get coming off a two-week trip that concluded with a sweep loss at UC Santa Barbara that knocked it down to 10th place in the Big West standings.
It was the first-ever meeting between the programs. Chaminade played its only full season of collegiate ball in 1980 and the program was shuttered for financial reasons a year later. The school announced in late 2022 it was bringing the sport back and hired Konishi to helm the program. The 'Swords got off the ground in fits and starts in February.
Tuesday was actually Chaminade’s seventh game played at the Les this season; it hosted Westmont for four games and Hawaii Hilo for two. UH is allowing its Division II neighbor to rent the state’s biggest ballpark on weekends that the ‘Bows are on the road. Konishi thanked Rich Hill, his old boss at San Francisco, not for the first time after Tuesday’s contest.
“It’s so helpful for my program,” Konishi said. “A first-year program, we get a chance to play in the best facility in the state. We hope to continue to do that.”
Hill glowed about Konishi afterward.
“He’s got that superpower of human connection,” Hill told the Spectrum Sports crew. “He was very responsible for us at San Francisco lifting that program to the upper echelon of the WCC, when (USF) was really in the doldrums. He’s on the phone all the time, a dogged recruiter, and more than that he’s just a special person.”
UH improved to 3-0 this season against local Division II competition.
Chaminade center fielder Aydan Lobetos and UH third baseman Elijah Ickes have mutual memories of winning a state championship for Kamehameha School at Les Murakami Stadium less than 12 months ago.
Ickes had an RBI single in the fifth while Lobetos drew a walk in the fourth.
“Every time we play here, I think about the state championship last year,” said Lobetos, “but it’s in the past and all we can do is think about the future and the now.”
Lobetos said the Silverswords tried to focus on having fun as they took on the state’s only D-I program. They ended up surprising themselves a little by staying in the game the whole way.
“Against Hawaii, we could’ve had it,” Lobetos said. “We had guys in scoring position but we couldn’t put the bat to the ball at the right time.”
Konishi acknowledged that getting through this season has been taxing for his freshmen, who are consistently going against players five years older.
“If we could play like this (Tuesday) consistently, I think we would’ve had a more consistent record and season,” he said. “But really proud of just putting a product on the field. I think we compete and hopefully we can move on in Year 2, and get better in Year 3.”
Offense was hard to come by for both teams, even as they pieced together innings in a midweek bullpen game. Silverswords starter Mac Elske threw three perfect innings before he was lifted.
Kyson Donahue scored Jake Tsukada on a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Ten UH pitchers combined on a two-hitter with Brayden Marx (1-0) picking up the win. Danny Veloz recorded the last two outs for his first save.
UH managed only four hits, with leadoff man Jordan Donahue extending his hitting streak to 17 games with a single to right in the eighth.
The game served as a homecoming for not just Konishi, but Silverswords assistants Keith Komeiji and Matt Inouye. Komeiji was a Trapasso assistant from 2002 to 2009 and Inouye was an All-Western Athletic Conference performer during his UH career from 2003 to 2006.
Inouye, a longtime Spectrum Sports baseball analyst, wore a microphone throughout the game.
Chaminade has a week off, then will host Hawaii Pacific for four games at the Les beginning April 27.
UH hosts Big West co-leader Cal Poly (21-14, 11-4) for a three-game series beginning 6:25 p.m. Friday.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.