How a bucket-list MCWS trip turned into reality for Arkansas' Bash Braddahs - ESPN

Editor's note: This story was originally posted Monday, June 16, but has since been updated with new game information.

OMAHA, Neb. — In summer 2019, Jamie Aloy pulled together enough money to fly himself and his sons to Omaha for the Men's College World Series. It was a bucket-list trip for Aloy, a former college ballplayer raising a family in Wailuku, Hawai'i.

They stayed in a motel across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and sat in the cheap seats. They went to every game. His boys, Wehiwa, 15, and Kuhio, 13, loved baseball, and Jamie wanted them to «feel and smell» the atmosphere so that it wouldn't seem so far-fetched to someday play there.

The boys didn't say much, aside from a few «wows.»

«It's a culture thing,» Jamie said of their quiet demeanors.

Six years later, on Thursday, Jamie Aloy was at the downtown Omaha Marriott with his grown-up sons. Wehiwa, now 21, and Kuhio, now 19, are star hitters for the No. 3 overall Arkansas Razorbacks, and they were about to play in the Men's College World Series. Jamie gave them a hug.

«Can you believe we're here again?» he asked them.

The brothers looked around and didn't say anything.

«I think they cannot believe it either,» Jamie said. «I mean, what do you say?»

For five months, the Aloys have made plenty of noise in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Wehiwa has hit 20 home runs and earned SEC Player of the Year, and is a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award. Kuhio, who's 17 months younger, has hit 13 homers and driven in a team-high 70 runs.

Together, they're known as the «Bash Braddahs.»

The name is in deference to Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, the slugging duo who led the Oakland A's to a 1989 World Series title. The Aloys weren't alive then, of course, but learned about them