IRVINE, Calif. — Hawai’i Hilo Softball closed its season-opening action at the Concordia Kickoff Classic with a marathon 12-inning loss to No. 15 Cal State Dominguez Hills, a 16-13 victory over Sonoma State and an 8-0 mercy-rule defeat to Cal State East Bay at the Orange County Great Park.
Sophomore first baseman Victoria Macias was named to the All-Tournament Team after batting .526 with 10 hits, eight RBI and six runs scored while recording 43 putouts and five assists.
Hawai’i Hilo closed the weekend with a 2-3 record.
Up next: Ulili Softball Invitational (Honolulu, Hawai’i (O’ahu) / Mauli Ola Sports Complex at Sand Island Park) – Thursday, Feb. 6 vs Hillsdale College (1 PM) and Lewis University (3 PM)
Hawai’i Hilo 3,
No. 15 Cal State Dominguez Hills 4 (12 innings)
After three and a half scoreless extra innings, the 15th-ranked Toros finally managed to end the marathon with a two-out walk-off single by Alani Nguyen in the bottom of the 12th.
Chasing two runs and down to their final at-bats in regulation, the Vulcans clutched up and rallied to tie the game. Chenoa Cainglit got on with a lead-off single and Mariah Antoque followed up with an RBI triple for the first Vulcans run of the game. After a pitching change and two batters retired, Jayda Favela brought in the tying run with an RBI infield single.
After Megan Yorba — who entered the pitching circle to start the bottom of the sixth — went three-up-three-down in the bottom of the seventh, Macias drove Rayna White in with a sacrifice fly for the go-ahead score. However, CSUDH managed to tie the game in the bottom half with an RBI single to left field.
With help of the international tiebreaker rule that places a runner on second base at the start of each half inning in extras, both teams took the same approach in the ninth and 10th innings by utilizing the sacrifice bunt to move runners over but left them stranded at third base both times.
The Vulcans took a chance in the top of the 11th with Macias knocking a base hit to right field as Lexie Tilton raced around but was called out at the plate to keep the score intact.
Hawai’i Hilo had another opportunity in the bottom of the 12th with bases loaded but were unable to cash in.
Macias finished with 22 putouts and two assists at first base.
Hawai’i Hilo 16, Somona State 13
It was another marathon game with both teams totaling 15 hits each along with a 45-minute delay in the third inning.
The Vulcans plated eight runs in the bottom of the third and added five more in the bottom of the sixth which included the eventual game-winning runs on a bases-clearing two-strike double by Tilton. Macias followed up with a two-run homer as both combined to provide seven hits, eight RBI, five runs scored and seven putouts.
Favela, Kanoe Piltz and Kiani Nakamura each recorded a pair of hits.
The Seawolves threatened in the top of the seventh with four runs, but Madison Rabe, who entered in the opening inning out of the bullpen, closed out the win in going 6.2 innings.
Cal State East Bay 8
(5 innings),
Hawai‘i Hilo 0
The Pioneers plated four runs in each of the second and fifth innings for the early eight-run-rule knockout to close the weekend. CSUEB ended the game with a bases-loaded walk-off single.
Cal State East Bay pitcher Ashlee Troy managed to contain the Vulcans with seven strikeouts, just four hits allowed and now walks given up.
The Vulcans had runners reach scoring position just twice — both times by Antoque who advanced via base hits from Pilts and Nakamura, respectively.
Janessa Santos made her second start in the pitching circle for the Vulcans, going 4.0 innings with two earned runs allowed in being tabbed with the loss.
men’s basketball
fends off Menlo
After a slow start, Hawai’i Hilo Men’s Basketball stormed back to fend off Menlo, 74-64, Saturday night in Pacific West Conference play at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
Both teams combined to score 17 of the last 19 points from the charity stripe as the Vulcans posted a season-high 23 free throws for their second-best percentage (.825) of the season. Isaiah Hinds shot 7 of 8 at the free throw line and tallied a season-high 15 total points, putting in eight of them through the final two and a half minutes.
The Oaks managed to put together an early 13-2 run to take a double-digit lead before the Vulcans responded to close the first half outscoring Menlo, 26-9, to take a six-point lead into halftime. The Oaks again went on an early scoring spurt in the second half to tie the game at 39-39, but the Vulcans once again responded with a 15-4 run to jump ahead by double digits.
Still, Menlo would not go away as it managed a 14-6 scoring response to make it a three-point game before Hinds took over to start the final free throw battle.
Hawai’i Hilo moved to 7-5 in PacWest play (14-8 overall) as Menlo moved to a 5-8 conference record (9-10 overall).
Other notes
Nadjrick Peat collected 10 rebounds to total 550 career boards, moving to No. 3 all-time in the Vulcans record books — surpassing Randan Berinobis (‘15-‘18).
Vulcans fifth-year head coach Kaniela Aiona faced his former team for the first time since last coaching at Menlo from 2014-2020.
Hawai’i Hilo remained at No. 4 in the PacWest standings. Point Loma stands at the top at 13-1 as Menlo is slotted in at a tie for No. 11.
Up next: 7:30 p.m. Thursday vs. Fresno Pacific (Hilo / Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium)
