Daily Journal Baseball Player of the Year: Half Moon Bay’s Kai Kung

Guess who has a Woo-signed Mariners hat on his shelf?

Kung, a recently graduated left-handed pitcher who will continue playing at Cañada College next season, put together one of the greatest seasons seen on the Peninsula in the last two decades. A four-year varsity player, Kung was an above-average pitcher during his first three seasons before taking a massive step forward his senior year. Kung went 14-1, which was the third-best win total in the country of those teams who put their statistics on MaxPreps.com. He finished with a microscopic 0.59 ERA in 95 1/3 innings pitched, allowing just eight earned runs this past season, while striking out 121 and walking just 24.

He then pitched four games in the playoffs, posting a 10-0 shutout of Homestead in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division V bracket. He followed that with a masterful, eight-inning, 80-pitch gem in a 1-0 win over San Mateo to capture the school’s first CCS baseball title. He then pitched the first game of the CIF Northern California regional Division IV bracket and then capped his high school career with five more shutout innings in the Nor Cal title game as the Cougars beat Livermore 2-0 for their first-ever Nor Cal championship.

He finished the season with 24 1/3 scoreless innings as he helped lead the Cougars to a 15-game winning streak to end the year, all of which led to Kung being named the Daily Journal Baseball Player of the Year.

“I had high expectations,” Kung said. “But I didn’t expect to have a sub-1 ERA and win CCS and Nor Cals. … My season surpassed my expectations.”

Kung credits his massive improvement to being committed to getting his body ready for his senior year. He was 4-4 with a 2.78 ERA as a junior and more than anything else, Kung was looking to be a leader his senior year.

But his physical transformation is what allowed Kung to be a leader.

“Lot of conditioning. I worked out four days a week. Really took time to get my body ready for the season,” Kung said. “We had a (workout) program over the summer and I think having the program allowed me to work harder. Before that, we didn’t have (an off-season) program.”

That work appeared to pay off immediately as Kung got the start in the season opener — a 10-0 win over Lincoln-SF during which he allowed three hits in six innings of work, striking out a dozen.

It was one of four appearances with double-digit strikeouts.

He followed that with six more scoreless innings and six more strikeouts in a win over Lowell a week later.

In the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division opener, Kung went up against eventual division champ Sacred Heart Prep and their University of Southern California-bound starter, Rallin Covey, and came away with a 4-3 win.

“As the season got going and we got better and better, (we saw) he could pitch against anyone,” said HMB manager Brian Anderson.

Kung’s only loss came in a 3-1 decision to Christian Louie and San Mateo, but Kung and the Cougars got their revenge in the CCS championship game, where Kung out-dueled Louie for a 1-0 win in eight innings.

“He just has total command of his pitches and knows how to pitch,” Anderson said. “He out-thinks a lot of hitters.”

With a fastball in the mid-80s, Kung definitely wasn’t blowing batters away. But it goes back to knowing how to pitch — what to throw in which counts, and mixing and matching his pitches. He started the season as a fastball-changeup pitcher, but a tweak of his curveball grip turned Kung into a fastball-curveball pitcher and he made opposing batters look silly many times during the season.

“He has a ton of movement on his fastball, has pinpoint command,” Anderson said. “He knows how to get guys out. He knows how to get guys to go after his pitches.”

When a pitcher is as locked in as Kung was this season, it can lead to some spectacular performances — like when he beat Woodside on a Tuesday and then got the start that Saturday as he and the Cougars beat Sequoia at Oracle Park.

“We knew he really wanted to pitch in that (Oracle Park) game, so against Woodside, he asked, ‘What if I keep my pitch count down, can I pitch at Oracle?’” Anderson said. “We’ve never had a guy lobby for us to even think about it. … I can’t even think if we ever pitched a guy on short rest.”

Against Woodside on Tuesday, April 28, he pitched five innings of one-run ball in earning a 6-2 win. Against Sequoia at Oracle Park May 1, he pitched five shutout innings. He didn’t get the win — the Cougars scored in the top of the seventh to pull out a 3-2 victory over the Ravens — but it added to his growing legacy.

It also set a precedent that enabled Anderson to turn to his stud with everything on the line. Kung opened CCS play on Saturday and was on the mound a week later to win the CCS title. He made his third start in eight games in the Nor Cal opener against Sonoma Valley and then started the Nor Cal title game.

“Any little thing can ruin that kind of season. … It was incredible he was able to hold up and never miss a game, never missed a start,” Anderson said. “As a coaching staff, we thought he always had the potential to maybe get there. He’s way better than I thought. He might be the best pitcher I ever had. We’ve had so many good pitchers who have gone on to (play in) college and he tops them all.”