The UH-Hilo softball team swept Azusa Pacific Tuesday afternoon to close out its first Pacific West Conference play series victory with wins of 4-2 and 5-2 at the Vulcan Softball Field.
“Again, timely hits today,” Vulcans head coach Aisha Sueda said. “We did the little things as far as sac flies and putting the ball in play — trying to play some small ball. Things fell in place for us today.”
Freshman Dyoni Garcia helped bring in three total runs, highlighted by her second home run of the season in the first game to help the Vulcans get the doubleheader sweep.
In game one, Garcia drove in two runs with an RBI single in the third inning followed by a solo homer in the fifth.
Brandee Chinen scored the Vulcans’ two other runs, both on wild pitches.
Senior Malia Risdall notched her first win in the pitching circle, going the full distance in her 15th career start and 29th overall appearance.
APU’s Caitlin DeCanio batted three for three and helped spark both of the Cougars’s scores with hits in the fifth and seventh innings.
In the final frame, the Cougars loaded the bases and plated a run to make it just a two-score margin, but Risdall induced a grounder to shortstop to end the game.
In game two, Vulcans third baseman Chloe Domingo had one putout and made five stops at the hot corner.
Garcia got the Vulcans on the board early with a bases-loaded RBI groundout in the bottom of the first.
The rest of the damage was done with a four-run third inning as Garcia drew a four-pitch bases-loaded walk followed by a two-RBI single from Klara Cejkova-Kolaci and a RBI base knock from Rayna-Marie White to make it a 5-0 game.
Alexis Lacy pitched another gem in scattering six hits with no walks surrendered as she notched her fourth win of the season.
The Cougars clawed their way back into contention with back-to-back doubles to score a run in the fifth followed by a solo homer from Izzy Rivera an inning later.
Both teams had a clean sheet with zero errors as the Vulcans provided several defensive highlights while totaling double-digit hits for the third time this season.
Jayda Favela had two putouts and six assists at shortstop while White totaled six putouts in right field.
Freshman Rayna-Marie White continued on after getting her first hit of the season and finished the series going 5 for 10 with three RBI and 11 total putouts in right field.
“I think our freshmen are definitely stepping up and providing a lot more offense for us,” Sueda said, “so that’s definitely great and I’m proud of them. Being a freshman is kind of hard to adjust so early but they’re definitely doing the job.”
Jayda Favela totaled 14 assists and nine putouts at shortstop.
Alexis Lacy got two wins in the pitching circle, throwing 12.0 innings with just two earned runs allowed.
Hawai’i Hilo improved to 3-7 in the PacWest (6-13 overall) while Azusa Pacific moved to a 3-9 record (11-14 overall).
The Vulcans will head to northern California for two weeks of play then hop over to O’ahu before returning for its final home games against Chaminade and HPU at the end of April.
The top four teams will qualify for the PacWest Championships set for the first week of May at Biola University in La Mirada, California.