Okumura now Pacific softball's career RBI leader
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Estee Okumura became University of the Pacific's career RBI leader last week.
Okumura, a senior center fielder, hit a three-run home run against Portland State on Wednesday to pump her RBI total to 112, erasing the mark of 111 set last year by Cindy Ball.
OKUMURA
The 1999 Punahou graduate from Kapahulu started pushing her record higher in the next game with No. 113.
The homer was Okumura's fourth of the season as Pacific ran its win streak to nine and its record to 21-11. The Tigers won the Hawai'i Invitational the previous week.
Okumura also ranks seventh in batting average (.287), fourth in doubles (33), second in triples (12), fourth in home runs (17), and sixth in stolen bases (47) on Pacific's career lists.
And her defense so far this season is perfect — 25 putouts and five assists with no errors.
MORE SOFTBALL
• Notre Dame de Namur (Calif.)
Colorado Rockies shortstop Jose Hernandez, who averaged a strikeout every three times up last season — nearly setting a major-league record — could use some tips from the Argnonaut sophomore Erika Miyahira (Punahou '01 of Nu'uanu).
MIYAHIRA
The last time Miyahira struck out was on March 1 — 49 official at-bats ago. She has struck out four times this season in 117 at-bats, an average of once every 29 times up.
Miyahira does not just put the ball in play, she has 38 hits and is batting .352 with 15 RBIs, helping Notre Dame win 16 of its past 18.
Another thing Miyahira does not do is make errors. She has handled 113 chances at second base this season with no errors.
Sophomore Skylar Tokumine (University '01 of Kuli'ou'ou Valley) is the Argos' No. 4 pitcher with a 3-3 record and 3.57 ERA.
GOLF
• San Diego State
Junior Shayna Miyajima (Baldwin '00) yesterday was named the first Mountain West Conference Women's Golfer of the Month for the spring season.
Miyajima registered back-to-back second-place finishes, the best of her career, and a tie for 13th place in leading the Aztecs to three consecutive top-four finishes to begin the spring.
Miyajima matched her best collegiate round with a 1-under-par 71 to open the Mountain View Collegiate last week. Her other eight rounds in March included two 72s and a 73. She missed a share of the Lady Aztec title by a penalty stroke. At Oregon she had her career best 54-hole total of 223.
Miyajima, who advanced to the round of 16 at last summer's U.S. Women's Amateur, has lowered her average by more than three strokes from the fall (77.64) to the spring (74.50).
BASEBALL
• Cal State-Fullerton
They are going to be calling sophomore Kurt Suzuki (Baldwin '01) "Kurt Clutch" pretty soon.
For the second time this season, Suzuki drove in the winning run in the ninth inning for the Titans. Suzuki's walk-off double — his third hit of the game — with one out in the bottom of the ninth lifted Fullerton to a comeback 7-6 victory over Cal State Northridge.
In his next game, Suzuki hit a double and single and drove in three runs as Fullerton stomped No. 5 Long Beach State, 7-0.
Suzuki and P.J. Pilittere, with whom he platoons at catcher, are batting a combined .410 and have not committed an error in 30 games (245 chances).
Fullerton is 7-1 against ranked teams and 24-6 overall. The Titans moved from No. 4 to No. 2 yesterday in Baseball America's college rankings.
TENNIS
• Northern Colorado
Junior Jan Ikeda (Baldwin '00) yesterday was named the college's Female Student-Athlete of the Month for March.
IKEDA
Ikeda had a 5-2 singles record and an 8-1 doubles record with senior teammate Jodie Sato (Mililani '99).
Ikeda plays No. 1 singles and Sato No. 2 for Northern Colorado and they are No. 1 in doubles. Both of Ikeda's singles losses last month were to players ranked in the top three in the region; she is ranked No. 4.
As a doubles team, Ikeda and Sato are ranked first in the region. They have won three straight North Central Conference championships together.
On the year, Ikeda has an overall singles record of 11-6 against four-year schools and she and Sato have a doubles record of 9-4, a pace nearly identical to their 20-8 final record last season.
"They're playing with more confidence this season," coach Rosemary Fri said. "They volley better, return serves really well and have made the biggest improvement in cutting off shots at the net."
"We want to finish off good and do the best we can," Sato said.
It is the second month in a row that Hawai'i has produced Northern Colorado's Female Athlete of the Month. In February, it was school record-setting swimmer Saree Ho'opi'i of Pukalani, Maui.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
• Bethel (Indiana)
Junior Mayumi Stevens could have a future as a long-distance saleswoman. Forty-one of her 45 baskets this season were 3-pointers.
Stevens (Moanalua '00) was one of the first guards off the bench, averaging 10 minutes a game, for Bethel's National Christian College Athletic Association championship team.
Only 10 of the 116 shots she took were from inside the arc.
If Stevens wants one of the two starting guard positions being vacated by graduation, she "needs to develop her defense and strength," coach Jody Martinez said. "Quickness and shooting ability is what allows her to play college ball, but she is petite (5 feet 3) and her weakness is the physical aspect of defense."
Mayumi "is a doll to have on the team," the coach added.
Bethel went 29-9 and defeated Roberts Wesleyan of New York, 80-64, for the National Christian College title.
There are 10 students from Hawai'i at Bethel, which is in Mishakawa — just outside of South Bend.
• Irvine Valley (Calif.) JC
Freshman point guard Ashley Takata (Kalani '02) was one of nine guards chosen on the 15-player All-Orange Empire Conference team.
"She is so quick, we use her to penetrate, break down the defense and distribute, or we spot her up," coach Julie Hanks said.
Takata led the Orange Empire in assists in conference games at 4.6 per game, and was third in all games at 3.6.
She made 42.2 percent of her field-goal attempts (87 of 206) and averaged 9.8 points per game for the season. Although only 5 feet 5, Takata averaged 5.4 rebounds in 14 conference games.
Takata drew attention of the Los Angeles Times when she made the winning basket with 15 seconds left against Palomar (60-59) and the Orange County Register chose her Junior College Female Athlete of the Week.
Irvine Valley, which Hanks said "overachieved with 10 freshmen from different areas," qualified for the Southern California playoffs and finished 15-13.
SHORT SHOTS
• Cornell sophomore Travis Lee (Saint Louis '01 of Liliha), who won the NCAA Division I 125-pound wrestling championship, was named Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Wrestler of the Year. Lee's season record was 33-0.
• David Wong (Damien '77) became Willamette (Ore.) University's winningest baseball coach last weekend when his Bearcats swept a Northwest Conference doubleheader from Lewis & Clark (Ore.). Wong is 277-215-3 in his 13th season at his alma mater. He surpassed former coach John Lewis, who won 276 games from 1948-72.
• California sophomore swimmer Caleb Rowe (Baldwin '01) improved his career best in the 200-yard breaststroke by more than a second to 1 minute, 58.06 seconds, trimmed nearly half-a-second off his career-best 100 breaststroke with 55.23 and did the 200 individual medley in 1:49.80. He was 23rd in the 200 and 26th in the 100 at the NCAA championships last week in Austin, Texas.
• California's NCAA-I champion softball team has moved sophomore Kaleo Eldredge (Baldwin '01) from leadoff to No. 5 in the batting order and Eldredge has taken on her new role with relish. She is batting .385 (10-for-26) with two outs, and has delivered seven of her 18 RBIs in that situation.
• Volleyball freshman Jonathan Grobe (Iolani '02) is among 81 Pepperdine (Calif.) student-athletes who will be honored next week for achieving a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or better.
• Linfield (Ore.) sophomore Dayson Tiogangco (Hilo '01 of Papa'ikou) was chosen Northwest Conference men's track and field Athlete of the Week for his 14-7¥ pole vault that qualifies provisionally for the NCAA Division III championships. He also runs on Linfield's 4x100 relay team.
• Junior Joey Bareng (Moanalua '00) was named to the All-Rocky Mountain Conference (RMAC) wrestling team. Bareng went 28-8 and won the NCAA Division II West Regional 125-pound championship.
TRACK AND FIELD
Marks of competitors from Hawai'i at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday at Stanford, Calif.
400 — Lauran Dignam (Iolani '02), Washington, 59.52
800 — Eri Macdonald (Punahou '99), Oregon, 2:12.72 (Macdonald also anchored a 4x400 relay team to 3:53.77).
Steeplechase — Alicia Snyder-Carlson (St. Anthony '99), Oregon, 11:08.10
5,000 — Annie Kawasaki (St. Francis '01), Portland State, 17:44.18
Long jump — Kelly Figueira (Sacred Hearts '02), Cal State-Fullerton, 17-11 1/2.
Hammer throw — Aloha Santiago (Baldwin), Idaho, 156-0.
