Wehiwa Aloy is transferring to national power University of Arkansas after earning WAC Freshman of the Year honors after his first season at Sacramento State. Sacramento State Athletics photo
Wehiwa Aloy isn’t worried about NIL potential or even a scholarship as he’s headed to Fayetteville, Ark., to play baseball for national power University of Arkansas.
The 2022 Maui Interscholastic League Player of the Year for state runner-up Baldwin High School entered the transfer portal on May 31 after a breakout college debut season at Sacramento State. He was named the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and a freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball magazine after hitting .376 with 14 homers and 46 RBIs in 56 games, 55 of them starts.
After being contacted by about 30 programs after entering the portal, Aloy chose Arkansas on Saturday over fellow finalists LSU, Cal and Oregon State.
“Right when the transfer portal opened, I entered it and once my name got put in the portal I just had a bunch of schools calling me, texting me,” Aloy said Sunday morning at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on his way to play in the Cape Cod League. “Just the coaches over there (at Arkansas), I felt like they could help me become the best I possibly can, on and off the field.”
The Hornets (30-26 overall, 14-16 WAC) missed the WAC tournament, but Arkansas (43-18) finished the season with an RPI of 5 in the NCAA list of more than 300 Division I teams — the Razorbacks were eliminated in their home regional in Fayetteville by TCU.
“It’s very exciting, it’s going to be a good experience, especially with this Arkansas program,” Aloy said. “I feel very confident that we’re going to make it super far, this coming next year or the year after, for sure.”
Aloy plans to major in sports management at Arkansas, but he is first and foremost a baseball player.
“The ultimate goal is to get drafted my junior year,” he said. “But right now I’m just focused on competing, just getting better, just help the team win.”
After leading Sac State in batting average, at-bats, games, runs, hits, triples, total bases and on-base percentage, Aloy was in high demand.
His confidence is currently soaring as well, especially just a year after Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen signed him out of Baldwin.
“I have a lot of confidence, my confidence has helped me so far,” he said. “I’m very thankful for the Sac State program, coach Reggie, (hitting coach David) Flores — they gave me the opportunity to compete at the next level out of high school, so I’m very thankful for them.”
Aloy said the Hornets coaches were not surprised when he entered the portal.
“They understood why and stuff,” Aloy said. “They took some understanding to it when I decided to leave.”
Younger brother Kuhio Aloy is on his way to BYU to play baseball and their dad Jamie Aloy was a standout at the University of Hawaii in the mid-1990s.
“Picking a new school was very hard, but I felt that Arkansas was the school for me,” Wehiwa Aloy said. “It took me a while, I had to narrow my choices down.”
It is rare for MIL players to go to an SEC power and, in fact, Aloy is the first in baseball to do so in recent memory.
“Yeah, it’s very cool that I’m able to compete at a very high level,” Aloy said. “I hope it opens many doors for the young kids back at home, giving them motivation to pretty much be what you want to be in the future.”
Aloy admitted that life is moving rapidly. He will be just the third MIL player to compete in the Cape Cod League, joining his father and former Maui High and Oregon standout Mark Karaviotis on the list. Aloy will play for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox — their 44-game season started a week ago.
“I’m taking things one step at a time right now,” Aloy said. “It’s been very stressful these last couple days and once I committed to Arkansas the stress pretty much went away.”
When asked if he is getting a scholarship to play at Arkansas, Aloy said, “I hope so … but, yeah, no promises.”
When asked about name, image and likeness possibilities at an SEC powerhouse, Aloy said: “That doesn’t matter for me. I just want to play.”
* Robert Collias is at .
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