Starting out on top is always the preferred option and the UH-Hilo softball team began the Pacific West Conference season in the best possible manner Friday when it swept a doubleheader with BYU-Hawaii, winning the first game 3-2 and routing
Starting out on top is always the preferred option and the UH-Hilo softball team began the Pacific West Conference season in the best possible manner Friday when it swept a doubleheader with BYU-Hawaii, winning the first game 3-2 and routing the Seasiders 10-0 in the mercy-rule second game.
“I think playing at home in your first conference game might bring a little anxiety,” said Vulcans coach Peejay Brun, “you want so badly to play well and get off to a good start that I think it took us a while to get into the game, but once we settled down, we played well.
“It was good to see, a good way to start,” she said.
Junior Danielle Wilson, the nominal ace of the staff, struggled through her least effective start of the season in the first game, lasting just 1 1/3 innings before she gave way to sophomore Cyanne Fernandez (1-0), who struggled a bit, settled down and handled the Seasiders the rest of the way for her initial win of the season.
Fernandez hit the first batter she faced and later walked two batters but she was able to scatter three hits and keep UHH close enough to do damage, which is what happened in the bottom of the sixth when Cristina Menjivar and Bailey Gaspar — a pinch-hitter for Danielle Wilson earlier — each lofted home runs just to the right of straightaway center field to turn the game in their favor.
Trailing 2-1, Menjivar led off the sixth with her blast and after Brandi Wilson flied out to right, Gaspar touched a pitch from BYU-Hawaii starter Meghan Wantz (2-5) and sent it about 10 feet beyond Menjivar’s home run.
“I don’t really know what happened in the first game, except we didn’t adjust to the pitching too well, but we eventually made the adjustments,” Gaspar said after hitting her first home run of the season. “I went up to the plate with a plan, I wanted to hit the ball hard, drive it somewhere, but then I hit it, I thought I missed it, I thought it was going be a big pop-up, but by the time I got to first I realized it was out.”
After the two Vulcans’ home runs, Wantz was replaced by Pitisi Tualau, who allowed three hits but no runs in two-thirds of an inning.
Danielle Wilson started the game with a strikeout then had trouble. She walked the next batter, gave up two singles and a run, then started the second by hitting Alexa Barrett and gave up another base on balls before Brun made the change and brought in Fernandez.
The second game was nothing like the first game.
UH-Hilo (10-5) jumped on the Seasiders for seven first inning runs, which all started with leadoff batter Victoria Garcia’s single. She stole second and left fielder Mari Kawano followed with another base hit to start an impressive day at the plate for the top two sports in the lineup. She was 3-for-4 and scored three runs, while Garcia was 3-for-4, scored a run and had two RBIs.
The Vulcans got two more in the third and one in the fourth to putthe 8-run mercy rule into effect after five innings, and with freshman Billi Derleth’s (6-4), work in the circle, the Seasiders had trouble getting anything going.
Derleth allowed just two hits, struck out three and issued no bases on balls. In her last three appearances, she has thrown 17 innings with 10 hits, one earned run and 15 strikeouts.
“I feel honored to be here, to be in this position,” said Derleth, from Huntington Beach, Calif., “I owe so much to coach Brun, she has really taken the time to work with me on the mental side of the game and I’m feeling more comfortable.
“(Brun) taught me that my game begins in the bullpen, and that’s attitude I take pregame,” she said, “but it’s all about the attitude you take into the game. Good bullpen, bad bullpen, the attitude has the right when the game starts.”
It surely was Friday and now the Vulcans are 2-0 at the top of the conference after a 2-1 start last year that fell apart somewhat after that before they recovered to finish strong.
The idea this year is to stay where they are.
“This feels good,” Brun said, “but in our game, there’s always another doubleheader and more to prepare for.”
The Vulcans host BYU-Hawaii (2-8, 0-2) again Saturday with another doubleheader, starting at noon.
