Male Athlete of the Week: Connor Zalewski, Kalani baseball
Connor Zalewski has been a welcomed addition to say the least for the Kalani baseball team.
The senior pitcher and transfer from Mid-Pacific is 2-0 on the season with a 1.33 earned run average. Zalewski turned in another solid performance Wednesday in a 5-2 win over Kaiser. He went the distance and allowed two runs on six hits with six strikeouts against one walk.
"I think that was his best outing as far as not throwing too many pitches," Kalani coach Shannon Hirai said.
Zalewski, a 6-foot-3 right-hander threw 61 of his 89 pitches for strikes and recorded 10 ground-ball outs to three fly-ball outs.
"He didn't try to strikeout everybody; it was more of him going in believing in his defense and going after hitters and I think that contributed to some real quick innings and then, of course, his pitch count went really down," Hirai said.
Zalewski has gone seven innings in all three of his starts this season. In his first two outings — wins over Moanalua and Kailua — he registered seven strikeouts, but also walked four batters both times. Against Kaiser Wednesday he threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 29 hitters he faced. His only walk issued came to leadoff the top of the seventh, but he struck out two of the final three Cougars to end the game.
"I think the hard thing for hitters facing him is he throws a lot of pitches and he throws them around the plate so you can't really dig in on anything," Hirai said. "Against Kaiser I noticed that he used the change-up a little more. In past games he was using a curve or a cutter more, but I think he adapts well to whatever the umpire is giving up and the team we're playing."
For the season, Zalewski has 20 strikeouts to nine walks allowed. He has given up just four runs on 13 hits in 21.0 innings. The numbers are somewhat surprising given the fact that he had not pitched for more than a year due to a nagging elbow injury.
"I think in the beginning Connor kind of felt like he had to do everything," Hirai said. "I guess coming in as a high-profile guy and wanting to prove that to his new teammates there was a lot of pressure and him not being able to throw for a year because of his injury as well, so a lot of it is new to him and I think he's continuing to grow with each start."
Hirai said some of the Falcons were already familiar with Zalewski having played together on previous outside league teams, which helped with the transition for both parties.
"I think the biggest relationship that has really come about is with Connor and (senior outfielder) Payton Awaya and (senior utility) Reece Kakugawa," Hirai said. "The three of them have really come together in leading this team. Reece and Payton has really kind of taken him under their wing at school."
The transition on the field has gone smoothly as well for Zalewski, who bats clean-up and has a healthy .400 batting average.
"We weren't sure as far as his hitting where he would end up, but he kind of settled in there," Hirai said. "He's a gamer. He's kind of has just done it by example and he's super competitive and he comes from a winning program so he's been a tremendous addition for us."
Kalani is off to a 5-0 start and in first place atop the standings in the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Division I East.
"It's so competitive in our division," Hirai said. "All of our games have been decided in the last two or three innings and that gives us a whole bunch of confidence knowing that we can play in those tight games. Now we have to learn that everybody is going to try to knock us off and try to deal with that, whereas we were kind of the underdogs in the first round."