There was point in Saturday’s second game where the University of Hawaii at Hilo had hope. Starter Jordan Kurokawa was sailing along and the Vulcans had just taken the lead.
There was point in Saturday’s second game where the University of Hawaii at Hilo had hope. Starter Jordan Kurokawa was sailing along and the Vulcans had just taken the lead.
But than reality set back in. Even on a day when UH-Hilo didn’t commit an error, Azusa Pacific was too powerful and too well-armed, sweeping a doubleheader 9-1 and 6-3 in Azusa, Calif.
The Vulcans (3-11 Pacific West Conference, 5-14) are in the league cellar and are staring at an eight-game losing streak with their 14-game Southern California road trip still in its infancy stages.
Kurokawa recovered from first-inning trouble and retired eight in a row before he hit Danial Martin with one in the fifth. Jordan Brower followed with an RBI double to tie the score 3-3, negating Jordan Murai’s RBI single in the top half of the fifth.
Pablo O’Connor opened the sixth with a double, and Mitch Dergazarian’s two-run double chased Kurokawa (2-2), who struck out eight but walked four and allowed five runs and eight hits in five 1/3 innings.
Jacob Cage (4-0) didn’t allow an earned run for the Cougars (19-7, 9-5), giving up six hits – including Edison Sakata’s run-scoring single in the second – with two strikeouts.
Azusa Pacific homered four times – double the Vulcans’ season output – in the first game.
Starter Jordan Kumasaka exited after Adrian Tovalin’s grand slam in the third. Brian Magana went deep off Chris Hubocan in the fifth, and Brower and Tovalin went back-to back against Hubocan in the sixth.
Kumasaka (0-3, 7.oo-plus ERA) was charged with five runs and seven hits in two innings.
Sam Kim was 2 for 2 for the Vulcans, but Josh Staumont (3-1) struck out 11 and overcame six walks in six innings.
Azusa will go for its fifth doubleheader sweep of the season when the teams meet up again Monday.