As the sun dips below the hills behind Baggett Stadium, the fluorescent lights of the batting cages buzz overhead, illuminating the green turf below.
Inside, teammates flip each other balls from a few feet away. Pings ring off across the empty field and balls fly to the back of the net, dropping below to the turf.
Sophomore Tate Shimao is one of those players who remains after practice. Once the bucket empties, he and fellow sophomore Wyatt King pick up the balls for another round of soft toss.
For Shimao, it’s routine: get a little better every day. Settling into a routine is something Shimao has practiced his whole life – it’s essential to who he is.
“He’s possibly the hardest worker that we have on our team and it was evident last year,” Cal Poly baseball head coach Larry Lee said.
Shimao’s freshman season
Starting as a true freshman is rare. Shimao, King and sophomore Evan Cloyd were the only three to do so last year. Shimao got the nod due to how he practiced at “full-go game speed,” according to Lee.
Lee awarded him the start at third base in the first game of last season against Missouri State. He got his first hit, knocking in two runs on a single to left field.
Lee continued to start Shimao at third base. After six games, he had a .296 batting average.
But, after the hot start to the 2022-23 season, the difficulties of starting as a true freshman started to pile up. He had 20 strikeouts in 16 games.
“For new players, everything you talk about is theory,” Lee said. “They haven’t experienced outside competition. The lights haven’t come on for real where wins and losses matter.”
For Shimao, this wasn’t theory; he was experiencing the ups and downs of playing a collegiate season.
After the Mustangs’ 16th game against Hawaii, his batting average dropped to a season-low .210.
“I would look up on the scoreboard, and you see your average just keeps going down,” Shimao said.
But he didn’t let it get to him. Instead, he looked at his struggles from a place of humility.
“I just had to take a step back and realize it’s a hard game,” Shimao said. “I wasn’t preparing right. I wasn’t doing certain things right to put me in the best spot to succeed.”
Shimao went on to record 10 hits over his next six games. In the sixth game at Long Beach State, their 22nd game of the season, he racked up three hits while also scoring three times.
“Just having lots of at-bats at the college level is a huge difference between just being a high school kid coming in and playing,” Shimao said. “So, just using that experience and failure to be able to, say ‘Whatever happens this year, I should be able to get through the ups and down.’”
Committing to baseball
When Shimao joined ‘Iolani High School’s varsity team as a freshman, head coach Kurt Miyahira saw his work ethic immediately.
“From the moment he was in our school, I noticed he was fearless,” Miyahira said. “He was confident, but he was fearless. He was willing to face any challenge head-on.”
‘Iolani, located in Honolulu, had a talented team when Shimao joined. They had not one, but two seniors drafted into the MLB right out of high school, according to Miyahira. They also had four seniors go on to play Division-1 baseball.
“He was surrounded by competition from the get-go and he embraced it,” Miyahira said. “He wanted to be great.”
With all the competition, Miyahira decided to move him to left field even though he was primarily shortstop.
“He responded well,” Miyahira said. “He competed every day, he worked his butt off every day, and he was a great teammate.”
Shimao’s commitment to constantly getting better allowed him to develop into a leader for his teammates, even though he wasn’t the most vocal player.
“He wasn’t necessarily a yeller or a rah-rah guy, just kind of leading by example,” Miyahira said. “He just got after it, and he was a great leader in that way.”
After his freshman year of high school, he decided to hang up his football cleats – and his commitment to baseball grew.
“For me, football, I kind of just jumped into as something fun to do. But, baseball is my future,” Shimao said. “So, I just decided that it wasn’t worth the risk of getting hurt and hindering my development.”
According to Miyahira and “football people around Hawaii,” he would’ve been a Division I quarterback if he continued playing.
But his mind wasn’t set on football. Miyahira reiterated that he stopped playing so he could travel more for baseball.
Then, during his senior year, he moved from Hawaii to California so he could play at Rancho Cucamonga High School to get more exposure.
“He lived away from home as a high school senior to play the best brand of baseball possible,” Lee said. “That says a lot about a 17-year-old kid.”
Shimao’s transfer to southern California paid off. He received offers from Hawaii and USC, before finally catching the eyes of the Cal Poly staff.
“He’s the type of player that you want in your program,” Lee said.
Hard work rubs off
As the Honolulu native continues building upon his prior season in preparation for the 2024 season, King is pushed by Shimao’s drive to get better.
“If he’s hitting after something, I see that and I go, ‘Okay, I should probably be hitting,’” King said, who started in 49 games last season.
Shimao and King were already close from being freshmen on campus together, experiencing things first-time college students go through. When the struggles of a long and grueling baseball season reached its peak, they were already well-connected.
“You have to lean on each other for support,” King said. “When you step on campus, you already have that connection, right? I think that’s the best part of having a team.”
Along with being there for support, they’re also there to push each other to become the best players possible. The internal competition, according to King, helps build mental and physical “toughness” needed for a full season.
King reiterated the same message both of Shimao’s coaches did – how much he worked every day. Before or after practice, Shimao always gets his extra swings in the cages.
“He’s always working,” King said. “And for me, it’s great, because he helps me become the best version of myself.”
With Shimao’s work ethic and now a full season’s worth of experience under his belt, there’s a lot of room for improvement.
“It’s a difficult game, but experience is big,” Lee said. “And you usually see the greatest growth in their second year, so that’s what we’re hoping for.”
Even with the highs and lows of a difficult freshman season, the experience has prepared Shimao for the 2024 season. He knows he can keep working hard to be a key piece of getting Cal Poly baseball back to a winning record.
“At the end of the day, however long he’s here and however he performs, he can look himself in the mirror and say ‘I did everything possible to become as good as I can be at the game,’” Lee said. “That doesn’t happen very often. He wants to be great.”