When is 13 a lucky number? When it’s the number of saves by Ryan Inouye and he’s set a record for most saves in a season at Hawaii Pacific, that’s when.
The NightOwls will have considerable bullpen depth with the addition of Inouye, who has 16 career college saves, but 13 this spring in 19 appearances, sitting with a 1-1 record and 2.08 ERA, helping the Dane Fujinaka-coached Sharks reach the PacWest conference tournament for the first time in 14 years.
The players announced as signed by the NightOwls today:
RHP Ryan Inouye, Hawaii Pacific, 5-9/165, Honolulu
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C Cassidy Watt, Dakota State, 6-1/215, Coquitlam, BC
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RHP Aidan Boice, Salt Lake City CC, 6-5/225, Millcreek, UT
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LHP Connor Abadie, San Diego State, 6-0/165, Apple Valley, CA
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IF/OF Cole Carmichael, East LA College, 6-1/185, Petaluma, CA
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RHP Kai Hanasaki, College of the Desert, 6-0/160, Kofu, Japan
Watt, a BC guy, is a solid, well-rounded catcher who does the job on both halves of the inning — in 40 games, he has just 18 strikeouts while hitting a pair of home runs, driving in 21 and batting .278.
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Carmichael can essentially play anywhere — including the ability to pitch. The freshman has five extra base hits and six stolen bases while giving his ELAC coaches lots of positional flexibility, where he is teammates with Manny Ramirez Junior, who will be part of the Victoria HarbourCats this summer.
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Abadie had a 1.23 ERA as a freshman with the Aztecs while shifting from a two-way to pitcher-only after a stellar high school career. Boice, who was at Colorado-Mesa, is a big righty who took pitching lessons from NightOwls pitching coach Gorm Heimueller as a youth player, and will be counted on in the bullpen.
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Hanasaki gives the NightOwls another Asian player, this time bringing an upper-80s fastball. Hanasaki did not give up a run in a lower level summer league in 2023.
