West Oahu Softball Standouts Sign With Silverswords
Graduation hit the Chaminade University softball team hard in the off-season, as the Silverswords lost eight seniors, including six position starters as well as both starting pitchers.
Chaminade softball head coach Kent Yamaguchi has been hard at work filling out his future roster, and announced recently the addition of three Hawaii high school standouts to the program.
Joining the ‘Swords for 2016 will be West Oahu products Kayla Higuchi of Aiea and Nashlynn Anguay of Campbell. Rainelle Matsuoka of Kaiser also will be in the fold.
Higuchi was a shortstop at Aiea High, where she helped guide Na Ali‘i to the 2015 OIA Division II championship and a runner-up finish in the state DII championships in recent weeks.
She was named to the HHSAA DII All-Tournament Team for her efforts, having batted .500 (6-for-12) with four runs scored, three RBI and a stolen base during the tournament.
She also came in big in Aiea’s game against two-time defending DII state champion Nanakuli in the title game, going 3-for-4 at the plate, with two runs scored and two RBI. Higuchi helped Aiea to three straight state tournament appearances and also made the HHSAA All-Tournament Team as a junior in 2014.
This spring, she was named to the All-OIA DII Second Team.
Anguay was a centerfielder for Campbell and recently capped an incredible four-year career by helping guide the Sabers to the DI state title.
She batted an impressive .385 with 19 runs scored and 12 RBI in her senior season this spring, earning First Team All-Conference honors in the OIA West.
In four state tournament games, Anguay batted .533 (8-for-15) with six runs scored, five RBI and a home run, culminating in a 3-for-4 performance with three runs and three RBI in the Sabers’ 16-4 win over Mililani in the title game.
Anguay helped lead the Sabers to four straight trips to the state semifinals, which included runner-up finishes in 2012 and 2014.
All three women join outfielder Kayla Henmi of South High School in Torrance, Calif., in Chaminade’s 2016 recruiting class.
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The Hawaii Pacific University softball team will host its annual summer clinics Aug. 8-9 (for ages
9-12), Aug. 15-16 (for ages 16-18) and Aug. 22-23 (for ages 13-15).
The clinics will take place at Howard A. Okita Field on HPU’s Windward Hawaii Loa Campus, with HPU softball players and coaches serving as instructors.
They will run from 1 to 5 p.m. each day and are free. Signups, however, are limited to the first 50 players per session.
All participants must sign HPU’s consent-waiver and medical-consent forms.
For more information, email Sharks head coach Howard Okita at hokita@hpu.edu.
