Isabelle Mejia’s leg injury is really working wonders for her arm.
Forced into concentrating more on pitching this season, Mejia pitched better than ever Wednesday, delivering a five-inning no-hitter to piggyback on Leah Gonzales relief no-no, and the Vuls swept Notre Dame de Namur 10-2 and 9-0 on their campus field.
“She’s really improved from last year, when she played the field,” Vuls coach Callen Perreira said. “She had a leg injury which prevented her from playing the outfield, and it fell into place.”
Mejia (4-0, 2.00 ERA) struck out three and walked one, retiring the first nine batters and the final five after Gonzales (3-1) pitched 4 2/3 innings of no-hit relief in the first game.
The Vuls (9-3, 4-0 Pacific West Conference), who welcome Holy Names for doubleheaders Friday and Saturday, swept the winless Argonauts (0-19, 0-16) for the second consecutive day. This time they added some offensive emphasis, finishing with 21 hits overall and three home runs in the first game, including the first career blast by senior Maria Steadmon and another by catcher Markie Okamoto, who provided the biggest bat of the day with four hits and five RBIs.
Honokaa graduate Kayla Requelman, a senior used mostly as a pinch-runner in her career, stroked a two-run double as a pinch-hitter and scored on Gonzales’ homer to end it via the mercy rule in the sixth.
UHH also scored four runs in the first inning against Sofia Garcia (0-9), getting an RBI single from center fielder Rayla Jacobs-Kea (2 for 4), who scored on Okamoto’s two-run homer, the freshman’s second of the season.
“We played with a lot more intensity and we made adjustments with our batting,” Perreira said.
Gonzales struck out five in her spotless relief stint after Billi Derleth yielded three hits, three walks and two runs and left with two outs in the second.
Okamoto collected three of the Vuls’ 12 hits in the second game, including a two-run double and finished with three RBIs. Steadmon added two run-scoring hits and Mae Kaleikini and Gonzales also each went 2 for 3 against Katie Betts (0-9).
Holy Names (3-8, 2-4) comes in as losers of four of five, but the Hawks handed Hawaii Pacific its first PacWest loss Wednesday behind pitcher Synphony Hall, with 13-1 win before the Sharks took the second game 9-1.
“They’re legit,” Perreira said, “we talked about that after the game.”