College softball: Salinas stars as Vuls rally for sweep

After watching Vanessa Salinas do the bulk of the work in the opener, the University of Hawaii at Hilo gave her more help en route to a sweep.

Salinas tossed 11 tosses 1/3 shutout innings Sunday, and she earned her second victory of a doubleheader in Waipio, Oahu when Danielle Wilson hit a two-run home run in the seventh as the Vulcans rallied for a 8-6 victory against Chaminade.

The first game was all Salinas. The senior right-hander tossed a four-hitter with four strikeouts and hit a home run in the fourth to provide UH-Hilo with a 1-0 victory.

“Everything was working for her,” softball coach PeeJay Brun said.

That wasn’t the case for Wilson, who started the second game but didn’t survive the third inning as UH-Hilo (10-6, 5-1 Pacific West Conference) fell behind 6-3.

The Vulcans, however, had 13 hits in their bats this time, including Emily Greene’s three-run home run.

“We talked about being aggressive in between games and going into attack mode,” Brun said.

The Vulcans started to chip away in the fourth on run-scoring singles by Shelby Vickers and Colleen Aubrey.

Aubrey singled through the left side with two outs in the sixth to tie the game.

Greene doubled to lead off the seventh, preceding Wilson’s blast to center.

“We had to pull her from the mound, but she was able to stay focused with the bat,” Brun said.

Wilson also had a double, and Aubrey and Danielle Pulido collected three hits each.

Salinas (6-3) allowed two hits in her relief stint against the Silverswords (2-10, 1-3) and didn’t walk a batter with one strikeout.

Brun preferred to keep her ace’s workload to just one game per doubleheader earlier in the season, but she said those limitations have gone by the wayside.

“We’re going to do what we need to do to win conference games,” Brun said. “The good thing is we’re starting to get healthy and everything is coming together.”