Faulkner: Arm injury throws UCI’s Hiura a curve

hough the Major League Draft came and went with little consequence for the UC Irvine baseball program, Anteaters Coach Mike Gillespie and his staff are dealing with some uncertainty about their top player.

Sophomore Keston Hiura, who led the team in batting (.358), home runs (seven), runs batted in and runs (41), and was second with six stolen bases, is still nursing a balky elbow that may cost him an assignment with USA Baseball this summer.

Hiura, a center fielder who earned freshman All-American honors and was the Big West Conference Freshman Field Player of the Year in 2015, hurt his right throwing arm while making a throw in an April 19 nonconference game at San Diego State. He missed three subsequent games, was relegated to designated hitter the final 20 games of the season, and finished with a .205 batting average with just 10 RBIs and five-extra-base hits in conference play.

The initial diagnoses ruled out damage to the ulnar collateral ligament, but a recent second opinion indicated a mild strain of the UCL, which will prohibit him from throwing this summer, Gillespie said.

Hiura was expected to be a strong candidate to make USA Baseball’s national collegiate team this summer. But that status is threatened by his prohibition from playing in the field.

Gillespie said if he does make the Team USA roster, UCI will attempt to place him with a Cape Cod League team, should a team 1) have a spot for him, and 2) be willing to utilize him only at designated hitter.

Gillespie said Hiura’s injury will be reassessed at the end of the summer to determine whether surgery will be required, though at this point, Gillespie said his impression from the language of the doctors is that surgery is unlikely and Hiura should recover for the 2017 season.

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The two UCI players selected in the MLB Draft last week, senior pitcher Elliot Surrey and junior shortstop John Brontsema, have begun or will embark very soon upon professional careers, Gillespie said.

Surrey, taken in the 26th round by the Seattle Mariners (No. 777 overall) has signed and reported to the Mariners’ Class A short-season affiliate, the Everett (Wash.) Aqua Sox, who begin their season Friday.

Brontsema, taken in the 26th round (No. 793) either has already or will shortly sign with the Kansas City Royals organization, ending his UCI career after three seasons.

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Perhaps the best news for UCI last week was that incoming freshman recruit Andre Pallante, a senior pitcher at San Clemente High this spring, was not selected, maintaining his availability to join the Anteaters next season.

Pallante, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound right-hander, saw his velocity improve from the low-90 mph range to mid-90s in recent months, and he had received interest from major league scouts.

Pallante was 6-3 with a 1.02 earned-run average in 2016 with 100 strikeouts and only 41 hits allowed in 751/3 innings. As a junior, he was 8-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 731/3 innings.

UCI pitching coach Danny Bibona has already projected that Pallante will contend for a spot in the weekend starting rotation next season.

Gillespie said Pallante’s pre-draft courtship by scouts, which led him to believe he would be drafted, provides an example of the believe-it-when-you-see-it approach Gillespie has long taken regarding draft speculation.

“We fully expected him to be drafted and [Pallante] certainly expected to be drafted,” Gillespie said. “The big problem with pro baseball is that area scouts have to do their job, which is not only evaluation, but establishing a rapport with a kid and his family to try to determine signability. They do that, but the decision [to draft players] is out of their hands. I have a hard time criticizing scouts for doing their job, but, in effect, it teases the kid and builds expectations, because these kinds of surprises are not all that uncommon.”

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Gillespie said Mikey Duarte, a first-team all-conference shortstop who sat out the 2016 season after undergoing elbow surgery, is expected to return for a final year of eligibility next season.

Duarte, who hit a team-best .341 with 17 doubles in 2015, will fill the spot vacated by Brontsema, who assumed the shortstop job in 2016 after Duarte was injured.

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Gillespie said 2016 senior first baseman Mitchell Holland, a two-year starter who hit .312 with seven homers and 67 RBIs in two seasons after transferring from Saddleback College, will likely join the coaching staff as a student assistant in 2017.

One 2016 student assistant, Jono Herkins, a former UCI player, will be a graduate assistant at Concordia of Irvine next season, Gillespie said.

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Finally, Gillespie took an opportunity to celebrate West representatives UC Santa Barbara and Arizona making the eight-team College World Series in a year that West Coast baseball was perceived to be down.

Gillespie pointed out that no NCAA Regionals were hosted west of Texas and that a pair of West Coast teams were shipped to the same regional twice in 2016.

“Maybe the West wasn’t so weak after all,” Gillespie said. “And the SEC and ACC only had two of their 17 [postseason teams] make the [CWS].”

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Vanguard University senior baseball standouts Sean Isaac and Jose Rojas, both taken by the Angels in the 35th and 36th round, respectively, have signed and been assigned, Lions Coach Rob Pegg said.

Isaac, the Golden State Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and a first-team NAIA All-American, is with theArizona Rookie League Angels.

Rojas, the GSAC Player of the Year and also a first-team All-American, is with Orem (Utah) Owlz of the rookie Pioneer League, who begin their season Friday.