Kalae Harrison will play baseball at a school that is the furthest away from home he was comfortable with leaving.
The Punahou junior middle infielder orally committed to play at Texas A&M on Sunday while visiting the school.
“I got the offer in the summer and it was kind of one of my top schools so I chose (Texas A&M) to be the first (school) that I go (visit),” Harrison said Monday. “It was always the school I wanted to go to since I was younger and it was a school that was the farthest away I was going to go.”
The son of former Hawaii standout Kenny Harrison and younger brother of KJ, an All-American at Oregon State who was drafted in the third round of the 2017 draft, Kalae Harrison made the Honolulu Star-Advertiser All-State second team last year as a sophomore.
He was one of only three sophomores chosen for either the first or second teams after hitting .338 with 18 runs scored and 14 RBIs for the Buffanblu, who came within one run of knocking off eventual state champion Baldwin in the quarterfinals of the state tournament.
Both Kenny and KJ came with Kalae on the trip to College Station, Texas.
KJ committed to Oregon State as a sophomore while Kalae is barely into his junior year before ending his college recruitment.
“Yeah, I think it’s a coincidence,” Kalae said of committing so early like his brother. “Our Dad has always told us to go through the recruiting process and you’ll find the feeling of what school you want to go. Once KJ went to Oregon State he knew he already wanted to go there so why wait? I could have waited and visited other schools but I went over to visit (Texas A&M) and everything was great and I got the feel for it.”
The Aggies went 40-22 last season and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the 12th consecutive year.
Texas A&M jumped from the Big 12 to the SEC in 2013 and won the conference tournament in 2016. In 2017, the Aggies advanced all the way to the College World Series.
“It’s a program always competing for championships,” Harrison said. “The SEC drew me in to playing in it because it’s not a (place) a lot of people (from Hawaii) want to go.”
You would think that Kenny Harrison would put in a good word to his boys for his alma mater… just saying
It also says a lot about the current UH baseball program when a guy like Kenny is working so hard to get his kids away from UH. Lets not forget that Kenny played at UH during a different era with a different coach. Its not the same now and he knows it.
Comments 1&2 – are you serious? Kenny let his his boys make their own decision because they are the ones are going to have to live with it. He’s not trying to keep his boys away from UH. The boys plain and simple wanna play elsewhere. Good luck boys! 808vsEverybody
Falcon Future seriously don’t run down the UH program. Kenny is my nephew, a good Dad and the best role model a kid could have. He let them go through the recruiting process, so they can get a feeling of where they feel more comfortable. That’s all don’t read into it.