OAKLAND, California – The University of Hawai’i at Hilo baseball team plated four runs in the seventh inning to rally past Academy of Art 7-4 for a game two victory Wednesday afternoon in Pacific West Conference action at Laney College.
Academy of Art broke a 3-3 score with a pair of singles to take a one-run lead in the bottom of the fifth inning.
After an Urban Knights pitching change to start the top of the seventh, the Vulcans went to work starting with a double off the wall by Casey Yamauchi to lead off the inning. Yamauchi scored on an error to tie the game as Ryan Cho, Alec Yamauchi and Vance Oshiro followed with base hits to score three more runs.
Christian Wood got his save of the season in 2.0 innings of work while closing out the final frame with three strikeouts.
Christian DeJesus got the start, going 5.0 innings while Ty Honda was credited with the win after 1.0 inning pitched as the redshirt-junior moved to a 2-1 record on the season.
UH-Hilo got its first two runs on the scoreboard courtesy Kein Iwata on an RBI single in the top of the second followed by a solo shot over the left field wall in the fourth inning.
The Vulcans improved to 10-9 in the PacWest (19-11 overall) as Academy of Art moved to a 5-13 record (12-20 overall).
UH-Hilo will wrap up its road trip at Fresno Pacific, April 10–11, before returning to Francis Wong Stadium to host HPU for its final home games, April 21–23.
The four-team PacWest Championships postseason tournament will be held May 10–12 in Fresno, California at FPU.
The previously 22nd-ranked Vulcans dropped out of the latest National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association NCAA Division II poll released last Wednesday and received zero points in the latest Week 8 poll released this week.
UH-Hilo also fell three spots to a tie at the No. 7 spot in the latest West Region rankings released this past Monday.
The Vulcans shared the seventh ranking with Cal State Dominguez Hills as fellow PacWest Conference schools Point Loma Nazarene and Azusa Pacific sit above at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
Cal State San Bernardino holds the No. 1 spot.