With Jackson Rees, Dominic DeMiero and Neil Uskali the 2018 Hawaii team has one of the most talented rotations in the Big West. This past Friday I was able to grab Neil Uskali’s autograph after the game.
- Uskali spent two seasons playing at Cuesta College, a community college in San Luis Obispo, California.
- Transferred to Hawaii in 2017 and was almost immediately dropped into the rotation. 13 of his 15 appearances were starts.
- 2017 was a very solid season: 6-4, 3.59 ERA with 92 hits, 44 K’s and 16 walks over 82.2 innings. This was good for a 1.31 WHIP.
- He has great control. In 2017 he was 6th in the Big West in walks per inning, and 66th in the nation.
- Fun fact: he did not start pitching until he was a senior in High School. That is still crazy to me that he has this much success in Division I ball with so little experience. And I think it says something of his potential moving forward.
He is starting off really strong in his senior campaign with the Warriors.
- He is 2-1 on the season, with only 11 hits allowed in 17.2 innings. He has struck out 12 and walked 7.
- His last start, a game I attended, was pretty amazing: 7 IP, 2 hits and 4 K against a good Loyola Marymount team.
With his excellent control, you have to think that professional teams are watching him for the draft in June.