Kaneshiro’s home run record, a long time in the making
The Utah State softball home run record was broken Saturday by senior Kelley Kaneshiro. During a game against Cal State Northridge at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Invitational, Kaneshiro was able to hit two out of the park, setting her record and the new school record at 26 home runs in a collegiate career.
“It is just going up there and trying to get a hit,” Kaneshiro said. “I am just trying to do my part for the win.”
The previous home run record was set by Sandy Taylor at USU was from 1997-00, during which she launched 24 balls over the wall. Kaneshiro tied that record last week during the Aggies’ third game of the season at a tournament in Los Angeles.
Kaneshiro has been a power hitter during her whole career as a starter for the USU softball. The slugger hit 10 home runs and ranked No.1 in batting average for the Aggies with .359 her freshman year. She is also the holder of the record for the most home runs hit in one game in the whole WAC conference with three recorded against Northern Colorado.
Kaneshiro said she had thought if she set the goal of getting about 10 home runs a season she could break the school record, but all that home run thinking stays stuck in the back of her head.
“I am not thinking that I have to get a home run when i step up to bat,” Kaneshiro said. “I am thinking that I need to get a hit to help my teammates get home and score for our team.”
Regardless, her personal and team preparation have been a huge factor in her long ball success. Kaneshiro did not focus specifically on being in top “home run shape” but credits, among many, her strength and conditioning coaches that helped her to be in the best athletic shape she could be in, to be such a power hitter on the team. “I felt that my personal 10-home-runs-a-season goal was good, so I got in any extra hits I could but still focused on practicing with my team and working well with my teammates,” Kaneshiro said.
Kaneshiro also enjoys the pre-game rituals that her team and coaches perform before every game, some of which include a nice hotel continental breakfast and getting her hair done in the hotel room before piling on the bus with the rest of the team. While on the bus, the whole team keeps loose by singing and dancing to the pump-up mix tape their coaches made. A few standout tracks, according to Kaneshiro, are Adam Lambert’s “Sure fire winners” and Kaneshiro’s own personal walk-up song “Remember the name” by Fort Minor. After the bus ride, it is just getting warmed up on the field.
Kanshiro said she also likes to make sure that all evidence of previous batters is gone from the box at home plate because as she said, “it is my box when I am up to bat.”
Kanshiro is from Auburn, Wash., near Seattle. She was all-State shortstop there as a senior in 2007. This caught the attention of coaches and recruiters for USU. She came to see the campus in Febuary 2007, just after a Cache Valley snow dusting. She met with the team and they told her about the school and the community and she said it “just felt like it could be her new home.”
Kaneshiro is an academic senior and an athletic junior since she was redshirted due to injuries during her true sophomore year. She is majoring in parks and recreation and has a internship lined up, but there are a few small-time professional softball leagues in Europe and and Japan, though their recruiting of Americans is regulated. Kaneshiro has not received any offers since it is against regulations, but said, “It just depends on where I am and what opportunities come up.”
Kaneshiro said, “I have a great team and coaching staff. If they did not believe in me it would have been way more difficult. They push me to be successful on and off the field.”
– mfiggat@gmail.com