HPU baseball lands solid player in Kaiser’s Tanner Kagimoto

WAIKIKI — Don’t let his size fool you, Tanner Kagimoto is a legitimate baseball player.

The Kaiser senior infielder affirmed his commitment to play for the Hawai’i Pacific University baseball team when he put pen to paper Wednesday morning at a signing day event at the Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort.

“This recruiting process has been really fun getting to know all the coaches at HPU and just enjoying the process of me playing baseball almost my whole life and finally being ale to do one of my biggest dreams playing college baseball,” said Kagimoto.

Click here for full list of signees and universities that they will be attending.

He praised the culture of the Sharks’ baseball program in choosing to sign with them.

“What really drew me to them is the coaches and the kids and getting to know a lot of the teammates was really fun and being able to stay home and play at home with all my parents being able to watch me and support me throughout everything.” Kagimoto said.

Although he is only listed at 5-foot-5 and 120 pounds, HPU baseball coach Dane Fujinaka says Kagimoto plays much bigger than his size.

“Tanner has a fire and enthusiasm about him that we love,” said Fujinaka. “He’s 5’5 but plays like he’s 6’5. Every time you look up, he’s making a play or rounding a base. As undersized as he is, he made it really hard for us to not notice him in the recruiting process.

“He came to almost every weekend intra-squad scrimmage and has already involved himself so much into our program. He’s a Shark. I’m not sure how else I can describe him besides he’s ‘our kinda guy.’”

Kaiser coach Josh Halemanu also spoke highly of Kagimoto’s work ethic, saying “if we’re not practicing he’s somewhere else working out putting in extra work on the side.”

He also praised Kagimoto’s cognitive ability on the field.

“His baseball IQ is really high,” Halemanu said of Kagimoto. “He knows all the infield positions and he’s also a great outfielder. He knows how to get reads, take good angles. Just a really well-rounded baseball player.”

Kagimoto helped the Cougars reach the OIA Division I championship game in the spring while batting .333. He also logged 7 and 2/3 innings in three games with a 1.84 ERA and earned the win in a four-inning, three strikeout performance against Moanalua.