Forty-three times on a Monday afternoon, the same sound reverberates across the Waimea Canyon Softball park.
Thwack.
A few seconds pass.
Thwack.
The sound — a ball exploding off the barrel of Ulu Matagiese’s bat — doesn’t differ with each hack. The sound isn’t weak or hollow. The sound is solid. The sound is perfect.
Each swing begins the same, with Matagiese’s open stance closing right as the ball is pitched. When she begins to swing, her front leg launches forward, propelling hips, muscle and metal toward a violent impact with the ball. Just like the sound, each follow-through is the same, with Matagiese letting go of the bat just after contact and holding the it high over her head for a second like a golfer admiring a 300-yard drive.
To the untrained eye, it looks flawless.
But Matagiese isn’t after the approval of an untrained eye — nor does she have one.
Her coach, 2006 Minnesota Twins draft pick Issac Castillo, barks a couple of tips between each pitch.
“You’re under it,” he says after the lone ball Matagiese doesn’t punish. “Keep your head back.”
The next pitch Matagiese rockets back up the middle, rattling the protective netting separating her and Castillo.
“Nice,” he says calmly. “Two more.”
After Matagiese rifles the remaining balls into the back netting, she steps outside the cage and wipes her sweaty forehead before the pair heads to the diamond to take infield practice. It’s the same routine that Matagiese and Castillo have done every day since Matagiese helped lead the Waimea Menehune to the 2012 Division II State Softball Championship earlier in May. Matagiese had three hits in the 12-4 win over Nanakuli that secured the championship win and clinched a perfect 15-0 season for the Menehune. She was named the tournament’s Co-Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
For most players, it would have been a fitting way to end the season, but Matagiese has something even larger on the horizon. Next month, she’ll fly to Prague, Czech Republic to represent the United States in the Prague Softball Cup.
Matagiese was noticed by USA Athletes International head softball coach Dale Lenhnoff back in January after she claimed a home-run derby competition during a camp in Arizona.
“When I saw her and her abilities I knew I had to talk to her about being on this U.S.A. team,” Lenhnoff says. “When I told her, she lit up like a Christmas tree.”
A centerfielder for the Menehune this past season, Matagiese will play shortstop, first and third base for Team USA during the tournament. She was an infielder during her first two years for Waimea, but after a year roaming the outfield, the second half of her practice with Castillo is dedicated to gaining consistency in the infield.
With Matagiese at shortstop, Castillo hits her two buckets of balls. Some are hard one-hoppers and others force Matagiese to show her range from left to right. Just as in the cage though, each repetition is like the other.
Matagiese approaches each ball aggressively and bends down low. She stares each grounder into her glove, with her right hand ready to close on top. Since there is no first baseman out for this practice session, Matagiese pops up ready to throw before discarding the ball into a pile along the third baseline.
The two continue to run through different scenarios that Matagiese may see during the tournament. This will be the biggest stage Matagiese has ever played on, and everything she and Castillo do during these practices is to prepare her for the world stage.
Issac Castillo isn’t surprised by Matagiese’s ability. As a native of Kaua‘i’s talent-rich Westside, Castillo has seen plenty of stars come through Waimea’s baseball and softball diamonds. He was one, too. He led the Menehune to a state title in 2006 and was promptly drafted in the 44th round by the Minnesota Twins.
But upon the completion Monday’s infield practice, with both player and coach dripping sweat, Castillo says there is one fundamental difference between himself and Matagiese.
“For me, this girl has way more heart than me. They play through ankles, backs and shoulders,” he says, pointing to Matagiese’s shoulder and launching into a story about how in a game last season the shoulder popped out and Matagiese refused to come out of the game.
“I get fired up everyday coming out here. If they tell me they’re ready to rock, we’ll rock.”
Matagiese’s own fire doesn’t come out of nowhere. She’s a member of a competitive family. Her older brother, Siasau, is a starting defensive lineman for the University of Hawai‘i Warriors. Her mother is one of the most vocal fans at each one of the Waimea softball games. But it’s not moms cheering or a potential sibling rivalry with her brother — although she says “she wants to make it bigger than him.”
For Matagiese, her fire comes from the love of the game and a desire to prove herself off-island. Matagiese is a firm believe in doing things as hard as possible. That’s how she’s played softball over the past decade and it’s taken her to a talent level that is equaled by few in Hawai‘i. She knows that she has the potential to take those talents to the Mainland and she wouldn’t be trying “110 percent” if she didn’t take a stab at it.
“You have to love the game and you have to have a goal,” she says. “My goal is to make it big. I want to get out of here and show that a girl from a small island can make it big in Hawai‘i and even bigger on the Mainland.”
Although Lenhnoff hasn’t seen Matagiese’s work ethic first hand, from his short experience with her back in January, he knows she has the talent and he’s looking forward to seeing the dedication.
“It just depends on what she wants to do,” he says. “She has all the skills to play at the collegiate level.”
Matagiese’s first chance at proving herself off-island will be in this tournament. Instead of facing Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a like she did 12 times this past season, she’ll be competing against the best the world has to offer. The competition will be stiff and the players will be talented. And although she says she may be nervous in the coming weeks, once the competition begins, she’ll find her comfort zone. Mainly because she thinks she’s better than them.
“I don’t care if you’ve played against 10 different teams and we only have two. We have skills here on this island,” she says. “To me, when I go up there my attitude is I’m better than you.”
Soon, she’ll be able to prove it to the world. Until then, she and Castillo have more work to do.
• Tyson Alger, sports writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or by emailing talger@ thegardenisland.com. Follow him on twitter.com/tysonalger.
