Gavin Concepcion is at ease on the baseball field, and in speaking with him on the Pearl City grass Friday, that peacefulness is not just because his Chargers had just defeated No. 1 Mililani 4-3.
Concepcion, in his first year at the helm, talked about how the game of baseball gave his team one (yes, the Chargers took advantage of three Trojans errors in the bottom of the seventh to score three times for the win) and how next time the game of baseball will make them work for it.
Sounds like something out of a baseball movie, but he is a baseball lifer, so he knows what he’s talking about.
A former assistant under Vern Ramie at Kamehameha, Concepcion is a 2001 Pearl City graduate. He was a catcher for the Chargers under coach Mel Seki and went on to Lewis and Clark State under coach Ed Cheff. He transferred to Hawaii Pacific in coach Garett Yukumoto’s first season there.
Concepcion also played for the Windy City Thunderbolts, an independent team, before hurting his knee, being released and deciding to hang up the cleats during his second season.
“You gotta love baseball,” Concepcion said. “You can be 8-0 or 0-6, but if you come out and play from the first inning to the last and play with determination, you always have a chance. This game will humble you.”
As for the 7-3 Chargers who have won four in a row, Concepcion said, “We’ve been going in a good direction. We’ve got to keep the intensity up. This win (against Mililani) was huge for our confidence and another reason why you’ve got to play all of your games out to the end.”
The Chargers will try to make it five in a row when they host Waianae (1-8) on Wednesday.
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