![]() Mid-sized schools that rise to the pinnacle in D-II often lose a large group of talent to graduation and enter D-I with a fledgling group of inexperienced, less-talented players. From the outside, it seemed like a possible recipe for struggle. This season, Nanakuli bumped up to Division I, joining some of the state’s best baseball programs in the OIA West. The Golden Hawks lost in the semifinals to Waipahu, but it was quite a campaign by a team whose core was mostly underclassmen.Īs a sophomore, Kapaku went 10-0 with a 1.65 ERA with 58 strikeouts to 10 walks in 51 innings pitched. He struck out nine in Nanakuli’s state-tournament win over Konawaena. In ’22, Nanakuli won the OIA Division II championship. Maddux’s range of pitches provided a blueprint. Maddux, the Hall of Fame hurler, and ace of the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves, became his pitching role model. Despite the lingering restrictions that limited his freshman year, Kapaku kept toiling away, a budding craftsman on the hill. The 2021 baseball season was semi-lost, with scarcely any preseason games, an abbreviated regular season, and no playoffs and state tournament. He didn’t throw super fast, but he’s really accurate and his curves were nasty,” Kapaku recalled. “My dad showed him to me, the best pitcher in the world. It turns out Greg Maddux is Donald Kapaku Jr.’s spirit animal. He saw a version of his future through the past. He did not have exceptional size and height. Kapaku, an 8-year-old who was new to pitching, did not have a dominant fastball. What he saw completely changed his perception of time and space.
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