Prep Baseball Report

2025 High School Preview: King Kekaulike Na Ali'i


Cam Black-Araujo
Western Operations

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The 2025 Hawaii High School baseball season is quickly approaching and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across Hawaii.

Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons in their respective State Championship Tournament, but there is plenty of work to be done before that becomes reality. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams across the state as we preview these individual programs across Hawaii. We will take you right up to first pitch this season with these team previews, eventually releasing our Preseason Power Rankings.

Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across Hawaii. Each week we will be releasing our Power 25, Players of the Week, Diamond Notes, and much more.

Our 2025 preseason coverage begins today with a preview of the King Kekaulike Na Ali'i.


2025 TEAM OUTLOOK

High School: King Kekaulike High School
Head Coach: Chad Hashimoto
HHSAA Classification: Division I
Conference: Maui I League
2024 Record: 4-10-1

+ No. Returning Positional Starters: 6
+ No. Returning Pitchers: 5

King Kekaulike enters the 2025 season returning a strong contigency of players from last spring, including six positional players and five arms who will look to lead the program to their first 5+ win season since 2018. The team is heading in the right direction under the leadership of Chad Hashimoto and will be a sleeper in the Maui I League with several upperclassmen prepared to lead the way. Our staff has seen several of the players within this article at showcases over the past year and will have several key players to watch this spring.

TOP RETURNING PLAYERS

The lone senior off the board for King Kekaulike is '25 MIF/OF Taydem Hashimoto (Hawaii Pacific) and will be looked upon to lead the squad this spring with his offensive and defensive abilities. The Na Ali'i also return a trio of juniors who look prepared to take the next step in their high school careers and provide consistent production. We got a look at all three of these juniors over the past year, including at the Hawaii Fall Showcase, which allowed us to collect updated metrics and all three look primed for a strong campaign... '26 INF Cade Yamada (Uncommitted), '26 3B/RHP Kaikanoa Ka'ahanui (Uncommitted) and '26 LHP Haena Ka'aihue (Uncommitted).

The team also has a trio of underclasmen in the 2027 class who will look to make a name for themselves this spring as they look for more opportunities to chip in and contribute. This group includes '27 OF/LHP Cove Campas (Uncommitted), '27 OF/LHP Stone Amsden (Uncommitted) and '27 C Maika Jonick (Uncommitted).

TOP NEWCOMERS

King Kekaulike's top newcomers were both mentioned above as some of the team's top underclass players and they'll have the ability to make an impact on the program for three years to come. '27 OF/LHP Stone Amsden joins the team from Nevada and put together a strong overall 2024 campaign and was apart of Palo Verde's strong baseball program.

'27 C Maika Jonick is another top newcomer and comes over from Kamehameha Maui and will be a welcomed addition in the teams catching room as he provides some depth and future at the position for the Na Ali'i.

With a strong crop of returning upperclassmen, as well as a jolt of production from their 2027 Class, King Kekaulike will be an interesting program to follow this spring as they look to improve upon their win total from 2024.


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