HONOLULU — Long before she was etching her name into the Chaminade softball record books, Taryn Fujioka was tearing it up on the diamond. 

She started her career at four years old as a baseball player and continued for years before making the switch to softball and dominating for the Pearl City Chargers. Fujioka’s dad shared a love of playing the game with her and she wanted to join her cousins out on the field when it came time to play.

That combination was all that was needed to get her in the door and the now-Chaminade shortstop’s heart swooned for the sport. She made a transition to softball at the age of seven, though she continued playing baseball as well until high school. 

“When I got to high school, I realized softball was going to be my number one focus,” Fujioka explained of the switch. “I wanted to put all of my time and effort into softball. 

Of course for Fujioka, the start of high school also meant the start of starring for the varsity softball squad at Pearl City. As a freshman, she batted .321 and was named as a 2018 OIA-All West All-Star honorable mention. 

The following years were thrown off by a global pandemic, taking away a full season from athletes across the planet. By the time she was able to return to the field in 2021 for a six-game condensed season, Fujioka was a high school senior looking for her next step to the college level. 

She turned the six-game slate into a pseudo-showcase, batting a scorching hot .389 for Pearl City. Without the world being back to normal though, the recruiting process had been difficult for the years prior and still a hassle for any mainland schools she was interested in. 

Luckily, she didn’t exactly want to go too far to continue her softball career at the college level and an opportunity presented itself as prime for Fujioka’s taking.

“I ended up staying [home in Hawai’i], the whole summer to play softball, and after that I realized that maybe I wanted to stay home for softball,” the Swords shortstop remembered. “Our coach at Pearl City, he helped me get in touch with [head coach Kent Yamaguchi] and talk to Coach Kent about Chaminade. Once I knew staying home was something I wanted to do, Chaminade was the school I wanted to go to.” 

The partnership has been fruitful for each side, as Fujioka has held down shortstop for the Swords for 84 of 87 total games played for Chaminade. She also has started every game from the moment she suited up for Yamaguchi and the Silverswords two seasons ago. 

Not only does she have the best availability she could, but the numbers have returned record results early on for the star shortstop. She led the team in hits and was second in batting average during her first year at the college ranks while tying the Chaminade single-season program record with four triples.  

Fujioka’s second-year encore was anything but the feared “sophomore slump” as she was named to the All-PacWest Third Team for her stupendous season. Fujioka led the conference with 36 walks and 46 runs scored, both Chaminade program records. 

As if that wasn’t enough, she also decided to spend 22 straight games — or the entire month of March worth of games — reaching base for the Silverswords for the second-longest streak in school history. 

Fujioka also discussed her future dreams while she works towards a business degree, how Pearl City helped prepare her for her next step in life — both on the field and in the classroom — before sharing the love she feels from local support and much more. 

The former Pearl City star has sliced through all challenges thrown her way so far and with no signs of slowing down, Chaminade fans should be excited.

It’s full steam ahead for Taryn Fujioka.