WAIPAHU, Hawaii — When it comes to blasts, Bronson Rivera is having one while supplying them like no other time in his college career.
Rivera, a former reserve at the University of Hawaii, has stepped to the plate for Division II Hawaii Pacific for his senior year and delivered, repeatedly.
The Holualoa, Hawaii Island native set the program single-season record of 14 home runs in Friday’s win over Hawaii Hilo and supplied one more for the Sharks in Sunday’s 16-14 slugfest against the Vulcans at Hans L'Orange Park, helping complete a series sweep.
It’s been a long time coming. The last two seasons of Rivera’s Konawaena High baseball career were wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. He latched onto Rich Hill's roster at UH and started 20 games in 2022, mostly in a designated hitter role. But from there, opportunities were spotty, then almost nonexistent.
Some change has done him, and the Sharks, plenty of good.
“This season means everything to me,” Rivera told Spectrum News in a phone interview moments after teammate Tyler Arnold launched a walk-off grand slam. “I mean, I worked my whole life towards it, so to be able to come out here and just enjoy it one last time, it means the world to me. And I'm really just trying to take it day by day, just live in the present and just enjoy every pitch, enjoy every game.”
HPU (23-15, 21-11 PacWest) has won nine straight league games and is tied for third as Dane Fujinaka’s Sharks are in contention for one of four conference tournament berths.
Rivera hit only .219 for his three-year Rainbow Warriors career, but the 6-foot-3 outfielder has been a revelation in D-II, hitting .387 to rank among the PacWest leaders in several categories.
HPU has three of the top four RBI producers in the league with Rivera (54), Noah Blythe (54) and Arnold (42). Rivera is within one of the PacWest home run leaderboard and Arnold is close behind with 12.
Rivera said his approach did not change when he went down a division, nor has his mentality been to hit homers. (He did not clear the wall once during his time at UH.)
They’ve just happened.
“My approach is simply just trying to hit line drives over shortstop and, yeah, nothing more than that,” Rivera said. “I’m just trying to put the sweet spot of the bat on the ball and get my best swing off every (time).”
Against his old team on Tuesday, Rivera went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs as the Sharks made the ‘Bows work for a 10-8 midweek decision.
In Sunday's four-game series finale with Hilo, he gunned down a runner at the plate from left field to get his team out of the top half of the third inning. Meanwhile, he went 3-for-4 with two walks, with his no-doubt long ball coming in the bottom of the third to halve a four-run deficit. Arnold, hitting behind him in the 6 spot, went 5-for-6. Blythe, Kan Taguchi and Noah Hata also homered.
“I feel like we're getting better as the season goes on," Rivera said. "And I still don't believe we're playing our best ball yet, but I definitely feel like we're making strides towards that direction. We just got to keep going, keep working hard and take it a day at a time, and don’t put our heads up til it's all over.”
HPU hosts Point Loma Nazarene and Vanguard at Hans L’Orange over the next two weekends, then takes on Chaminade at Hans and Central Oahu Regional Park in the final week of April.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
