Hawai'i power surge lights up baseball foes

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kevin Higa hit his third home run of the game in the 13th inning Saturday to give Babson College a 7-6 walk-off victory over the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in a playoff game at Wellesley, Mass.

Higa, a 1999 Maryknoll graduate from 'Aiea, said: "It was definitely, by far, my best day of baseball."

Higa hit a two-run homer to right in the fifth and tied the game 5-5 with his second homer, also to right, with two outs in the eighth.

"A great turn by Kevin at second base on a 6-4-3 DP got us out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the top of the 10th," Babson sports information director Chris Buck said.

Coast Guard went up 6-5 in the 13th. Then Higa ripped his game-winner, with a man on and one out, to left center off a pitcher with a 9-1 record.

Later that day, Higa hit an RBI double and went 2-for-4 to help Babson beat Wheaton, 5-4.

The playoff victories thrust Babson into the finals of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Baseball Tournament. Babson will play Wheaton for the championship today.

Through Sunday, Higa, a junior second baseman, led Babson in seven offensive categories and had the best fielding average among starting infielders. His batting average of .414 (58-for-140) was second on the team and his slugging average of .707 was first.

• Another three-peat: Linfield (Ore.) junior Kaleo Saiki also turned power hitter Saturday. He belted three home runs in a doubleheader to help Linfield knock rival Pacific out of first place in the Northwest Conference.

Saiki also homered against Concordia of Portland Tuesday night for a four-homer week. He went 7-for-14 with 11 RBIs and eight runs scored in four games and was named Northwest Conference Player of the Week.

They were his first homers since the opening game of the season. "I started slow, but I'm more free swinging now," said Saiki, a 1998 Kamehameha Schools graduate from Moloka'i.

Saiki is batting .342 (40-for-117) and has one of the best fielding averages in the conference at .993 (two errors in 284 chances at first base).

One ball he didn't field, however, a throw into the dirt, cost him two chipped teeth last month. "He got them fixed and he's more handsome than ever now," assistant coach Scott Brosius said.

Saiki missed last season with tendinitis in his throwing (left) elbow.

Sophomore Jason Koga (Kaua'i '00) is an infielder on the Linfield junior varsity.