They’re Giving It the Old College Try : Kishita: After a strong start, the former Rolling Hills High standout struggles to regain his form.

When Arizona’s baseball team played at USC in February, it was anything but a bright homecoming for former Rolling Hills High pitcher Kirt Kishita.

After an impressive debut against New Mexico, Kishita struggled with his control, saw his record fall to 1-4 and was relegated to the bullpen during the first week of conference play.

But in the second game of the USC series with the Wildcats trailing, 9-0, Kishita was summoned from the bullpen. The freshman pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed only one run to begin his climb back into the three-man starting rotation.

Kishita has won four games in a row, lowered his earned-run average to 4.50 and is now being counted on to help Arizona win its second Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division championship in four years.

“He got off to a slow start and relieved early in the season, but he earned another chance to start,” Arizona Coach Jerry Kindall said. “He took it very well. He knew he had not produced and he was willing to go to the bullpen. He agreed it would help him regain his effectiveness.”

Kishita said it took a while to regain his confidence, but remaining on the 25-man traveling squad helped.

“Being on the traveling squad still made me feel like a contributor,” Kishita said. “I just told myself to do the best that I can.”

Peninsula High co-coach Garry Poe, Kishita’s coach at Rolling Hills, was not surprised that Kishita rebounded from his slow start.

“He’s met every challenge he’s had in that very way,” Poe said. “He’s a real competitor. He knows the ups and downs of the game and he just hangs in there longer than the average guy would in the same situation.”

Arizona pitching coach Jim Wing said Kishita has improved immensely since the start of the season.

“He’s now capable of throwing three pitches for strikes,” Wing said. “He’s a good college pitcher, he can throw multiple pitches for strikes and has the capability of becoming a power pitcher. His velocity will increase. He has a bright future.”

Wing, who will retire at the end of the season after 20 years with the Wildcats, has helped develop many major league pitchers, including Scott Erickson, Joe Magrane and Craig Lefferts.

“We would like to have indoctrinated Kirt at a slower pace, but we put him right into the mainstream,” Wing said. “We were not able to bring him along slowly because of our needs.”

Arizona (13-11), ranked 12th in the nation, is tied with California for first place in conference play, a game ahead of Arizona State, Stanford and UCLA.

The pressure has not fazed Kishita.

“It seems normal to me,” he said. “I won two league championships in high school. One difference in college baseball is there are three or four starting pitchers, so you don’t have as much pressure.”

Kishita was the Ocean League player of the year last season. He was 8-3 with an 0.88 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 79 innings. As a junior, Kishita was 9-5 and batted .388 to earn Bay League MVP honors.

Kishita originally signed a letter of intent with UC Irvine. But after the Anteaters threatened to drop baseball because of budget cuts, Kishita was given the option to leave.

“I thought leaving was the best thing to do because if they didn’t cut the program this year it could happen next year, so I pulled out of there,” Kishita said.

Kishita is happy at Arizona, where the baseball team draws more than 1,000 fans a game. All the Wildcats’ conference games are broadcast on radio.

“I’m getting used to that now,” Kishita said. “I knew (baseball) was big here, I knew it was that kind of town. The Wildcats are the sports center in this town.”

On April 16th, Kishita returned to Los Angeles as a starting pitcher. In the first game of a series at UCLA, he pitched a complete game, giving up eight hits and striking out 10 in a 7-2 Wildcat victory.

“A freshman needs to get his feet on the ground, they take their lumps, but they also grow into productive pitchers,” Kindall said.

For now, Kishita has his mind on Arizona’s six remaining conference games.

“I think it’s very realistic for us to go to the College World Series,” he said. “I think that hit me Monday. I was on the bus (heading to a game against California) thinking about it. We’re just a couple steps away.”