UH-Hilo left-hander Kyle Alcorn was hit hard by Hawaii Pacific on the road back in February, but coach Kallen Miyataki chalked some of that up to bad lock.
“He made good pitches, they were just hitting them,” Miyataki said.
Alcorn is still making good pitches and with a better result. The sophomore was honored as the Pacific West Conference pitcher of the week Monday for the second time this season.
Alcorn earned his second win of the season against Fresno Pacific by throwing six shutout innings. The sophomore recorded six strikeouts in as many frames with only four hits and three walks allowed. None of the hits went for extra bases. He now has a 3.32 ERA, 2-1 record and 15 strikeouts in 19 innings for the Vuls (7-10, 5-5 PacWest).
Tennis rolled
Alessandro Giuliato held serve but none of his teammates could say the same Monday as UH-Hilo dusted off its raquets to take on the top team in country.
No. 1 Barry (Fla.) rolled past the No. 7 Vulcans 6-1 in San Antonio, Texas, in UHH’s first match since Feb 16.
This one was delayed four hours because of rain, and the Buccaneers earned five straight-set victories in singles.
No. 11 Giuliato beat No. 6 Carlos Gomez 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, but Vuls ace Vaclav Slezak, ranked 28th, fell 6-4, 6-2 to No. 2 Pierre Montreiul.
Berry had four players ranked in the top 50. On court 3, Martin Soukal lost 6-3, 6-3, while Chun En Wu went down 6-4, 6-4 on court 4.
UHH, which lost both doubles contests, has matches each of the next four days in San Antonio. The Vuls face No. 10 ranked Southwest Baptist on Tuesday.
Golfers struggle
UHH’s men’s golf team struggled during the first two rounds of the NDNU Argonaut Invitational in Livermore, Calif., managing to shoot 50-over to stand 12th in the 15-team field.
Jared Kinoshita closed with a 1-over 73, but after opening with a 77 he was 6-over and in a tie for 18th place.
No. 3 Western Washington was at 7-over and in great shape, 11 shots clear of the runner-up with 18 more holes to go Tuesday.
UHH freshman Andrew Otani was 14-over (74-84), followed by Warren Miller (86-74, 16-over, Taylor Patrick (77-85, 18-over) and Evan Merrier (92-81, 29-over). Adam Chiya played as an individual (82-79, 17-over).
Tied for the medalist lead were Tyler Fitchett of St. Martin’s and Nick Sparling of Western Washington 2-under.