Aiea will try for its first league win when it takes on undefeated Campbell this weekend. ScoringLive photo illustration

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Despite an 0-2 start to the regular season, there is much reason to be optimistic for longtime Aiea baseball coach Ryan Kato.

Had the ball bounced in their favor a few times, Na Alii — who are coming off an extra-innings loss at No. 7 Mililani Wednesday — could very easily find themselves with a couple of wins instead.

"So far we're oh-and-two, but I think we're in a good place," Kato said a day after the 2-1 loss to the division-leading Trojans. "We're still in a mode where we're getting used to being able to lean on each other because we have a lot of new faces, so it's just about getting comfortable with each other. I think we're trending in the right direction."

Aiea (0-2) enters the weekend as one of two winless teams in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I West standings (Pearl City being the other), while its opponent Saturday, Campbell (2-0), is one of two remaining unbeatens.

"I think we're pitching pretty (well) and you know, Campbell baseball is pitching and defense. I wish we could swing the bat a little better, but I think it's gonna come around," said Sabers interim coach Glenn Flores.

Campbell's first two games resulted in a 5-1 win over Leilehua and most recently, a 3-2 win at Kapolei Saturday.

Flores has used six different pitchers thus far. Both starting pitchers — Dayton Robinson against Leilehua and Varen Sabino against Kapolei — picked up the wins. Ayzek Silva is the lone pitcher to appear in both games; he got the save against the Hurricanes Saturday. Silva, a fourth-year varsity player, will get his share of chances out of the bullpen, but can also start games for the Sabers.

"There's no doubt that when the game's on the line, I want to get the ball to him," Flores said. "He's going to be a force to be reckoned with. Pitching from the left side, he's going to pose problems to a lot of teams."

Flores said the wide array of arms he has relied on is by design.

"We go by pitch count early in the season, so when our starter reaches a certain pitch count, no matter what the score is, we'll pull them and then give the next guy a chance," said Flores, who took over the program after state-championship winning coach Rory Pico was elevated to athletic director last year.

"We have enough arms and I have confidence that when our starter reaches his pitch count and I gotta take him out, the next guy can do the job," he said.

The Sabers have tallied 17 hits through their first two games, which has led to eight runs. Senior shortstop Ikaika Ganancial has paced the offense with his .571 batting average. He is also a threat on the base paths with five stolen bases this season.

Flores is hoping his team regains its form at the plate that led to a "not bad" preseason.

"We lost one game, tied two and then we won the rest, so it was pretty good," Flores said. "Early in the preseason we swung the bat well, so that was a pleasant surprise, but we haven't swung the bat as well as we should lately."

Campbell is coming off a bye and will have all three starters — Robinson, Sabino and Silva — available to start Saturday. Flores said he had not yet decided who he will give the ball to as of Thursday night.

"We got a chance to work out some kinks. We did a lot of offensive work trying to swing the bat a little better and trying to get caught up on some defensive stuff that we didn't do earlier, so the bye was good timing," said Flores, whose team is eighth in this week's ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings.

Saturday will mark the first home game for Aiea, which opened the season with a 4-2 loss to Leilehua last Saturday. It was held to five hits against the Mules and just two against the Trojans Wednesday.

"I would credit the opposing pitching as well as their defense," Kato said. "I mean, we've hit the ball hard and it gets caught or they make plays on it and that's baseball. It's not the team that hits the ball the hardest, it's the one that gets the ball to drop that prevails. The boys have been hitting the ball well — we've just been hitting them right at people — so we gotta make our adjustments and understand that that's part of baseball and get back for the next game and I told the boys that it's not gonna be like that all year. It's gonna start dropping, but we gotta keep our confidence up."

Kato, whose roster includes seven seniors, seven juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen, said the work ethic of his players has not wavered.

"I'm really excited about this year. They have a really good work ethic and a lot of heart, so I expect big things from them in the future," Kato said.

Like Flores, Kato is mindful of pitch counts, especially early in the season.

"I'm a strong believer in arm care, so I don't want to overuse anyone and you'll see a lot of pitch counts in that 60-to-80 range. I don't want to stretch them until later in the season, but we're still trying to piece together a good starting rotation, a good middle-of-game corps and then a good end-of-game corps, but right now we're still trying to figure things out, so we'll see how that goes further on down the road. The good thing is our pitching staff is interchangeable so people who usually relieve can start and vice versa, so it's kind of a mix and match because we're trying to find ourselves," Kato said.

Kato also said he has yet to decide on a starting pitcher for Saturday. Senior Joe Canosa started against Leilehua and logged 3 2/3 innings of work. Sophomore DJ Akiyama was effective in his six innings pitched against Mililani.

"Basically the Mililani game was nip and tuck the whole way," Kato said. "We played well defensively, we pitched well — so did Mililani — and it was just a matter of them getting one more run than us in the bottom of the last inning."

Kato noted that several players were playing out of position Wednesday, which he hopes will benefit his team in the long run.

"It wasn't so much of a heartbreaker because we knew we were right there. We knew we had people playing in situations they're not used to playing in and I think, especially playing in tight ball games is gonna pay off down the road," Kato said. "We're starting to jell and we're learning what people can do."

First pitch between the Sabers and Na Alii Saturday is scheduled for 11 a.m. at Aiea District Park.