Vulcans lose 8th straight

Tribune-Herald

It doesn’t get any easier for the University of Hawaii at Hilo baseball team, despite No. 4 St. Cloud State leaving town after a five-game sweep.

The Huskies defeated the Vulcans 7-0 in a nonconference game Wednesday before 86 fans at Wong Stadium, extending UHH’s losing streak to eight games.

The Vulcans (4-13) next face Cal Baptist (14-2) in four-game Pacific West Conference series, starting Monday. The Lancers went 43-16 last season and reached the NAIA national tournament.

“Things aren’t real positive for us right now,” Vulcans coach Joey Estrella said. “We’re going to get right back at it in practice and try to straighten things out.”

Estrella played around with his lineup Wednesday to try and find an offensive spark, but right-hander Garrett Anderson allowed only two hits over seven shutout innings to pick up the victory for the Huskies (14-1).

Tyler Simao (0-4) kept the Vulcans in the game by pitching into the eighth inning, yielding four runs — one earned — on eight hits and a walk with two strikeouts.

“Tyler was the bright spot, probably his best outing of the year,” Estrella said. “But it doesn’t matter how many runs we give up if we can’t generate any ourselves.”

Phil Imholte, Eric Loxtercamp and Joey Benke collected two apiece and Joey Althoff added a two-run single for St. Cloud State, which added three insurance runs in both the eighth and ninth innings.

Jeremy Kaaukai and Tyson Goo had the Vulcans’ hits.

UHH’s longest losing streak is 20 games, achieved during the 2001 season (6-44) and 2002 season (5-45) when the program was an NCAA Division I independent.

The Vulcans’ longest losing streak on the Division II level is 12 straight games, set last season when the team finished with a 21-25 record.

St. Cloud State 100 000 033 — 7 11 0

Hawaii Hilo 000 000 000 — 0 2 2