Nikau Pouaka-Grego

Nikau Jack Pouaka-Grego

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 175 lb.

• Born September 13, 2004 in Christchurch New Zealand

BR register page

Biographical Information

Nikau Pouaka-Grego has played in the minors and for the New Zealand national team.

His father was a baseball player and his mother played softball. He played for New Zealand's youth teams in the Cal Ripken World Series. He moved to Australia. In the 2018 U-15 Baseball World Cup, he was 4 for 10 with 5 walks, 3 times plunked, a triple and 6 runs for Australia, fielding .957. Only Solomon Maguire scored more runs for the Aussies.

Pouaka-Grego was signed by Philadelphia Phillies scout Howard Norsetter. He hit .301/.424/.466 as a 2B/3B for the '22 FCL Phillies. Had he qualified, he would have been 7th in the Florida Complex League in average and 5th in OBP. He then played for New Zealand in the 2022 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, one of three 2022 minor leaguers on the team alongside Jason Matthews and Ben Thompson. He was still their youngest player, about a year younger than the next, Maclain Roberts. He hit third for them and played second base in their opener against Brazil. He singled off Gabriel Barbosa his first at-bat then took Igor Kimura deep in the 8th with Chayton Krauss aboard, but it was not enough in a 12-7 loss. Their other game was versus Argentina. Moving up to second in the order, he went 1 for 4, as his country got four-hit by Federico Robles and José Mendoza. He was among New Zealand's tournament leaders in hits (tied Max Brown and Matthews for first with 3), homers (tied Krauss for the lead with 1), RBI (2, 3rd, one behind Krauss and Brown), steals (1, 1st), average (.375, 3rd, .054 behind Brown and Matthews), OBP (4th), slugging (1st, .083 ahead of Krauss) and OPS (1st, 54 ahead of Matthews). He was not the only hyphenated player on the right side of their infield as Daniel Lamb-Hunt manned first base.