With heartbreak and a laugher, UH-Hilo’s softball team tumbled out of first place.
Cal Baptist scored a run in the 10th inning, taking advantage of a tiebreaker rule after the Vulcans failed to, for a 2-1 victory, then the Lancers powered their way to a 12-3 win Monday in Riverside, Calif., and the top spot in the Pacific West Conference.
By rule, UH-Hilo (22-11, 14-6) put Angela Aguinaga on second base to start to 10th, but after moving to third on sacrifice she was stranded by the next two batters. The Lancers (30-6, 13-3) quickly loaded the bases when tough-luck loser Billi Derleth walked one batter another, leading to Jordan Mowatt’s game-winning hit.
Derleth (10-6) wasn’t charged with an earned run in nine-plus innings, allowing seven hits with four walks and two strikeouts.
Aguinaga hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to tie the game, scoring Kayla Requelman, who pinch ran after Cristina Menjivar was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
In the second game, Krista Mann led off the bottom of the first with a home run off Danielle Wilson (10-4) and matters quickly deteriorated from there.
Cal Baptist compiled six hits in the third and three UH-Hilo errors led to an ugly eight-run inning. Hannah Thieroff’s two-run home run in the fifth off Cyanne Fernandez ended the game via the TKO rule.
In four innings, Wilson gave up eight runs, seven earned, on nine hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
Brandi Wilson hit a two-run home run for UH-Hilo, which moves on to face Dixie State on Wednesday.
Baseball swept
The day began promising enough, but UH-Hilo gave up 31 runs and was swept by Dixie State in St. George, Utah.
In the second game, the Red Storm hit 21 for 43 with seven extra-base hits, winning 20-6. Combined with a 11-5 win in the first game, Dixie State (22-6, 10-4) scored 27 runs in a seven-inning span.
Run-scoring singles by Edison Sakata and Jacob Grijalva and Byron Freitas’ two-run double staked the Vulcans (4-19, 3-17) to a 5-0 lead, but Dixie State stormed back against Jordan Kumasaka and Deric Valoroso (0-2) by scoring eight times in the sixth.
“They just came out and made some bombs,” coach Kallen Miyataki said of the first game. “That pretty much says it all.
“Kumasaka pitched a real nice game until the (sixth).”
The Red Storm had seven extra-base hits in the first game as well, including three home runs.
Grijalva finished 4 for 5 and Sean Nerhoof was 3 for 5.
In the second game, Morgan West (0-2) was hit hard, allowing eight runs on seven hits while getting only four outs. Reliever Cole Nagamine also allowed eight runs on seven hits.
The Vulcans’ Jaron Manago hit a three-run double.
