By BILL O’REAR
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Stefan Henderson had two hits and drove in five runs to spark Academy of Art University to an 8-5 win over the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Monday.
The Pacific West Conference baseball game was played at Laney College in Oakland, where the Urban Knights (3-28 overall, 3-21 PacWest) play their home games. The visiting Vulcans (7-28, 4-22) claimed three out of the four games in the series.
Henderson had a three-run triple as AAU rallied from a 4-3 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take control. Then after UHH plated a run in the seventh to pull to within 7-5, the hosts added another run in the eight to close scoring.
Zach Babitt added two hits for the Urban Knights and Niko Leite (2 runs) had a hit to keep his hitting streak alive in the series.
John Abreu, Jonathan James (2 RBIs), Tyson Goo and Jeremy Kaaukai (1 RBI) each had two hits for UHH while Joshua Wong had a hit and an RBI.
Spencer Roland started and went seven innings for AAU and got the win. Reliever Bryce Hutchins earned a save. UHH starter Bryan Raines pitched 5.2 innings and took the loss before Vulcan coach Joey Estrella used three relievers to finish.
“Overall, I’m really please with how we competed in this series and on the trip,” Estrella said. “When you can take games against Grand Canyon and Dixie State and take the series from a much-improved Academy of Art, that’s a successful trip.”
On deck: HPU
The Vulcans next host PacWest foe Hawaii Pacific University in a four-game series this week at Wong Stadium. A doubleheader will be held at 3 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday.
R H E
UHH 000 121 100 — 5 10 0
AAU 002 014 01x — 8 12 2