HARWICH, Mass. — When Yarmouth-Dennis shortstop Wehiwa Aloy stepped into the batter’s box in the top of the ninth with the Red Sox and Harwich Mariners knotted at 3-3, he said he remained patient and relaxed.
In his previous at bat, Aloy smoked a double, 107 miles per hour into left-center field, which tied the game. Before that, he worked a four-pitch walk in the fifth inning and knocked a hard-hit single in the second. Through his first seven Cape Cod Baseball League games, Aloy said he’s developed a good feel for the strike zone, leading to him seeing good pitches to hit.
Still, heading into Saturday’s game versus Harwich, he had just a .158/.292/.316 slash line to show for it. But Aloy demonstrated his feel for the zone when he reached base for the fourth time in the game on a full-count, opposite-field base hit, which led to him scoring the game-winning run three batters later.
“I just focus on hitting the ball hard, eventually it will find a hole,” Aloy said postgame.
Before joining Y-D for the 2024 Cape League season, Aloy got his first taste of Power Five Division I baseball while playing his sophomore year for Arkansas. As the Razorbacks' primary shortstop, he hit .270/.355/.485 as the team went 44-16 and made the NCAA Tournament. The level of competition and team success were vastly different than what Aloy experienced as a freshman.
Hailing from Wailuku, Hawaii, Aloy said he grew up in a baseball paradise. Attending H.P. Baldwin High School, Aloy established himself among the (if not the) best players in the state. As a senior, he hit .350, becoming an all-state selection and earning Maui Interscholastic League Player of the Year honors — the league’s most prestigious award.
But before dominating as a senior, Aloy had to determine the next stop of his baseball career. He fell under the radar as a college prospect, not landing on Perfect Game’s class of 2022 rankings. He announced his commitment to Sacramento State in late October of his senior year.
Competing in the Western Athletic Conference, the Hornets are a relatively unknown D-I team and haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2019. Though they were barely above .500 in 2023, Aloy quickly emerged as one of the best freshmen in the country.
After hitting .376/.427/.662, Aloy became a consensus Freshman All-American, including from Perfect Game. Following his historic season, he was also named the WAC Freshman of the Year, becoming the sixth player in program history to earn the honor.
But, for Aloy to develop as a legitimate Major League Baseball prospect, he had to take his talents to a new program. After receiving extensive interest, he decided Arkansas was the best fit for him. When reflecting on why he chose the Razerbacks a year later, he said they provided great facilities to help improve.
While playing baseball was nothing new for Aloy, the environment it’s played in at Arkansas is vastly different. Instead of showing up to a field in Hawaii or preparing for a WAC contest, Aloy landed in the Southeastern Conference — a much larger stage and the home of the last four NCAA Tournament champions.
Facing a new challenge, Aloy admitted it was a big change. Though he hit the same number of homers (14), drove in more runs than he did at Sacramento State (56 compared to 44) and accumulated more walks (25 compared to 15), 2024 saw him take a significant step back offensively — mostly in the power department.
While his OBP took a .072-point dip, Aloy’s SLG dropped from .622 to .485 — nearly twice the dip of his OBP. This saw his wRC+ drop from 152 — meaning he was 52% better than the league-average D-I player — to 100, in line with the league-average D-I player.
“It was a big change, for sure,” Aloy said. “When there’s like 10 people at Sac. and 12,000 people at Arkansas, it’s a big difference. I just adapted to my surroundings and started getting comfortable.”
Most of Aloy’s struggles stemmed from a slow start. Ten games into 2024, Aloy had a 32 wRC+ before settling into his new environment. While Aloy and his Razorbacks teammates played great baseball throughout the rest of their season, they were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the regional round.
This led him to debut in the Cape League, where, propelled by his 3-for-3 game against Harwich, he is 6-for-22 with an .848 OPS. While Sacramento State gave Aloy his start, he got the necessary experience and exposure at Arkansas to transition flawlessly to playing against the nation’s best players on the Cape.
(Photograph by Aidan Conrad)
