After watching another fine pitching performance by Alexis Lacy go for naught, UH-Hilo’s softball team had every reason to pack it in at Azusa Pacific.
Instead, the Vulcans rallied for what might have been the best win so far in Aisha Sueda’s young tenure as coach.
Nikki Zielinski awakened her team’s bats with a two-run home run, Lacy walked to help scratch the go-ahead runs to back freshman Tehani Seto in the circle, and the Vulcans ended a five-game losing streak by beating the Eagles 4-2 in Azusa, Calif.
“Those five losses were tough to swallow being that they were very close games and winnable for us,” Sueda said. “This last game, really showed the fight that I needed this team to have. It was a great team effort both in the circle, defense making plays and offensively coming up with timely hit.”
UHH (11-9, 9-7 PacWest) lost the first game, 2-0, despite Lacy (4-3) allowing only one earned run in six innings in taking her third consecutive loss. Her ERA is a
In the second game, fellow freshman Sato delivered her first complete game, scattering seven hits.
“Tehani performed very well today,” Sueda said. “She really stepped up and kept Azusa’s batters off balance, forcing ground balls and a lot of plays made.”
In the sixth, Zielinski drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to score Lacy, who led off the inning with a walk, and Jayda Fevella tacked on a run-scoring single.
Azusa (16-13, 10-6) won both ends of Monday’s doubleheader 3-2, sending UHH to cool start on what could be a season-defining road trip. The Vuls still have stops at Concordia, Biola and the Tournament of Champions in Turlock, Calif., playing 17 games in 14 days.
“Losing three games to a team can be hard to bounce back from,” Sueda said, “but they did what they needed to do, and I am very proud of my team for doing that.”