Nishioka is big part of Miners' 2015 success

PALMER — Tanner Nishioka emerged as a top talent for the Mat-Su Miners during the 2015 Alaska Baseball League summer season.

He was named an ABL All-Star, earned the Miners’ Mike Kelly team best utility player award, earned All-ABL honors at both utility player and first base, and was named the ABL co-Silver Slugger of the year, sharing that award with the Anchorage Bucs’ Stephan Trosclair.

But all those accolades didn't come for Nishioka without the player first earning his spot on a very talented roster.

In early June, when everyone was trying to find their respective roles on the team, Nishioka was trying to find his spot. Certain things separated Nishioka from the remainder of Mat-Su’s athletes. A Pomona-Pitzer College product, Nishioka was a Division III player on a team loaded with Division I talent. But he was also an athlete who could play all over the field for the Miners.

He played in eight of the first 16 games of the season at third base, hitting safely in five of those contests with four of those being multi-hit games. When the steady Nyles Nygaard arrived June 15, Nishioka began battling for playing time with not only Nygaard but Jedd Fagg as well. With the Miners already having a deep roster in the infield and outfield, Nishioka struggled to find his place.

“I was just trying to earn playing time any way I could,” he said. “I was waiting and ready for an opportunity to contribute.”

Nishioka's drive and solid work ethic has its roots in his high school days. At Iolani High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, he excelled at football in addition to baseball. In fact, he was a two-time all-state punter and an all-state first-team wide receiver at Iolani.

“Football gave me a good work ethic,” Nishioka said. “We were the hardest working team in the state. It helped me get my competitive spirit and shaped me as a ball player.”

His opportunity to shine with the Miners came unsuspectingly on June 29 when the Miners hosted the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks in Palmer. In a contest where the Miners won 13-2, Miners manager Ben Taylor was able to give almost everyone on the roster a shot to play. Nishioka was inserted into the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning. From there, Nishioka had a triple and a single in his two at-bats to drive in four runs and blow the game wide open.

“What Tanner was able to accomplish in those two at-bats opened my eyes,” Taylor said. “His commitment to getting his early work in showed me that I needed to find a way to get him into the lineup. He's been a game changer for us ever since.”

Around that time, Miners first baseman Jack Zoellner went down with an injury, knocking him out of the lineup for weeks. Acknowledging Nishioka’s versatility and success at the plate, the skipper offered him the first base position. It was an offer the player embraced right away.

“When Jack went down, we needed some more depth at first base,” Nishioka said. “I never had played first before but I just wanted to help out my team any way I could.”

It wasn’t long before he was thriving in that position. Nishioka not only became a regular at first for the Miners, league coaches and broadcasters thought enough of his play on the corner to name him first-team All-ABL at the position.

Nishioka also became one of the top hitters in the league, and nearly earned a piece of the league’s batting title. Nishioka hit .364, which tied him for the team lead with Miners outfielder Alex Caruso.

Caruso won the league batting title with that .364 average, but Nishioka fell just short in the number of plate appearances needed to qualify for the league statistic leaders. Still, Tanner Nishioka proved himself a worthy competitor this season.

Kevin Piel is a member of the Mat-Su Miners broadcast team. He is pursuing a major in telecommunications at Bowling Green State University.