For first time, 4 ‘Maui boys’ playing on same Rainbow Warriors baseball team

Fans from Maui who tune into University of Hawai’i baseball games this season will see some familiar faces.

Ben Zeigler-Namoa will be in left field or at first base, with Konnor Palmeira behind the plate. Later in the game, it is quite likely relief pitcher Dylan Waite will be on the mound, after having been warmed up in the bullpen by freshman catcher David Vergel de Dios.

For the first time, four players from Maui are playing on the same Rainbow Warriors baseball team.

“It wasn’t on my bingo card,” Zeigler-Namoa said. “But … it kind of puts Maui on a pedestal, gets more eyes on Maui baseball because I think [the island has] some of the best baseball played in the country.”

UH baseball coach Rich Hill said Thursday that the four Maui players all have good character.

“Aside from the baseball thing, these guys are great kids and it’s obvious their families have done an amazing job raising these boys because they got to me as phenomenal people,” he said. “I mean, it’s ‘yes sir, no sir, thank you.’ The gratitude that comes through with these guys on a daily basis, it’s just extraordinary.

“The family name on the back of that jersey should stand extremely proud.”

Maui had a rich history of sending baseball players to the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa program for decades, with players who included standouts Kahai Shishido (former baseball coach and athletic director at Baldwin High), Brady Perreira, Jon Viela (current athletic director at Kamehameha Schools Maui), Kelsey Isa and Scott Teruya.

But the Maui to Mānoa pipeline stopped for 20 years, beginning in 2002, when Baldwin High School graduate David Morita made just one appearance on the mound for the Rainbow Warriors. The last Maui player to be a regular for UH was Baldwin High’s Jamie Aloy, who graduated from UH in 2000 after a standout baseball career as a pitcher and first baseman.

The pipeline was silent during most of the tenure of UH head coach Mike Trapasso, who’s 20-year tenure ended after the 2021 season. Hill has opened it back up.

During this timeframe, however, the Rainbow Warriors baseball team did have a couple of players who hailed from Maui County. Lānaʻi High School graduate Naighel Calderon, who played at UH from 2020-24, was the first player from the Maui Interscholastic League to be part of the program since Molokaʻi’s Keahi Rawlins played there from 2003-07.

The two-decade drought for Maui island players ended when Palmeira, a Kamehameha Schools Maui graduate, joined the Rainbow Warriors in 2021 as a freshman. In his first career college at-bat, he hit a home run against Arizona State.

During his freshman season, he made 10 starts and appeared in 21 games. But he left the program for Everett (Wash.) Community College in 2022 looking for more playing time. He transferred again to play for Cal State Bakersfield the last two seasons before rounding out his college career at UH, returning as a team leader.

“I’ve just come full circle,” Palmeira said.

As a freshman, he played during the COVID-19 pandemic when there were no fans, “so I didn’t really get to experience it all. But now it’s just electric. I’m so happy to be home, close to my family, seeing old faces, just experiencing that Mānoa magic. It’s amazing.”

He now is joined at UH by Baldwin High School graduates and current college seniors Zeigler-Namoa and Waite, and Maui High’s Vergel de Dios. 

The Rainbow Warriors have got off to a hot 7-1 start entering Friday’s game against Northeastern University.

Palmeira has played in seven games, starting five, and hitting .250 with a double and 4 runs batted in.

Zeigler-Namoa has started the first eight games with a .346 batting average, a double, home run and 5 RBIs.

Zeigler-Namoa said being one of four “Maui boys” has been an unexpected bonus for what is likely his last season in Mānoa.

Ziegler-Namoa, a left-hander, was a Cape Cod League All-Star over the summer and could return next season because of a recent court ruling allowing NCAA athletes to not count junior college seasons against their eligibility. He started his college career at Yavapai College in Arizona in 2022 before making the Big West Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll each of the past two seasons. 

“This team has as much potential as any team I’ve been around,” Zeigler-Namoa said. “It’s a different dynamic than last year’s team and the teams before. It’s just a very scrappy ball club, it’s super fun to play with. … It’s definitely a team worth watching.”

In the season opener, UH scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to walk off with a 9-8 victory over Marshall. Waite got the win having pitched the final out in the top of the ninth inning. Waite is listed as a senior, but the left-hander also has the option to return next season after spending the first two seasons of his collegiate career at Clark College in Washington.

“I didn’t expect to play with three other Maui boys, but we’re all having a blast here,” Waite said.

Waite and Zeigler-Namoa are roommates for the second straight season. They spent time together on the 2020 and 2021 Baldwin teams that were denied full seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic and their bond is one of the closest on the UH team.

“I have the utmost respect for (Zeigler-Namoa),” Waite said. “He has impacted my life a lot, he has been there for me through the highs and the lows.”

Vergel de Dios has not made it into a game through the first two weeks of the season, but he was told to warm up to be ready to relieve Palmeira behind the plate in the season opener against Marshall before the game ended in walk-off fashion. His teammates lovingly tease him about being a member of the co-state champions from Maui High, who shared the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA state baseball championship with Baldwin last season.

“They all say howzit going ‘Mr. Co-State Champ?” Vergel de Dios said. “But being here is surreal almost. Growing up and seeing other people wear that tapa ‘H,’ it’s crazy that I’m doing it now.”

He is learning from the trio of older players from his home island. His locker is next to Zeigler-Namoa’s.

“Those guys are like big brothers to me,” Vergel de Dios said.