Hilo team keeps watch over hurricane at home

BANGOR – While it wasn’t the way the U.S. West champions from Hilo, Hawaii, were used to winning games, the unfamiliar tension and drama of Tuesday night’s game was more than just a come-from-behind victory.

It was also a welcome distraction, even if it only lasted 2 hours and 12 minutes.

Tuesday night’s game was difficult on and off the field for Hilo, as all its players, coaches and fans had their eyes on the Mansfield Stadium turf and their ears pressed to their cell phones, getting the latest word on conditions back home as Hurricane Flossie bore down on their Hawaiian island.

“Right now, parents are on their cell phones making sure everything is OK over there,” said Hilo team manager Kaha Wong. “Some kids’ parents are at home right now, so they ask me if they can give them a call, but we can’t use cell phones in the dugout.”

As of early Tuesday evening, the weather back home was primarily steady downpours and strong winds.

“It’s getting kind of bad right now, but the part that we live in isn’t being hit as bad as the south part,” Wong said.

Player Keaka Pilayo said it’s difficult not to be at least somewhat distracted by current events, but baseball gives all his teammates something to focus on.

“It’s tough because we worry a lot about friends and family back home. We just stick together and pray and talk to people back home to make sure things are OK,” Pilayo said. “It’s like coach says and how we feel too, once we get through this chain-link fence and on the field, we’re different people and we focus on this.”

Hilo certainly hasn’t shown any ill effects from worries over the home front. The team is 15-0 in the entire postseason and rallied for a dramatic win that made them 3-0 in World Series play and clinched a spot in Friday’s semifinals.

“Just about all our family is back home, so it’s tough sometimes but we know in the back of our heads we’re here for one reason and that’s to win the World Series,” said Kolten Wong. “Everybody knows once you step on this field, your mind is on baseball and you don’t think about anything else. It’s kind of a break.”