Coach Callen Perreira said “tag” and then “go.” All Cristina Menjivar heard was tag.
Coach Callen Perreira said “tag” and then “go.” All Cristina Menjivar heard was tag.
It’s cruel that a split-second of hesitation – only one play among many during a topsy-turvy affair – proved costly for UH-Hilo on what was a long and gritty yet frustrating day of softball.
The Vulcans lost a marathon, 10-9 in 13 innings Sunday, and then a sprint, 7-1 in five innings, to Concordia, which left UHH’s field in a hurry as darkness approached to try and catch a flight back home after taking three of four in the series.
Perreira said he didn’t think the losses, which dropped the Vulcans to 7-7 and 1-3 in PacWest play, would linger.
“We just have to get our confidence back,” he said. “We just need to get our heads together and they’ll be fine.”
Perreira, who coached the Vulcans from 1990-2009 before taking over again this season, said he couldn’t remember a game here that took 4 hours, 24 minutes.
“That’s a long time,” he said.
UH-Hilo was nothing if not resilient, spending much of that time battling back, the highlight being a two-out home run by Bailey Gaspar, who was down to her last strike, before she slammed a ball to left-center to tie the game 8-8.
With the Eagles’ Grayson Harvey (8-4) finding a rhythm in her second stint in the circle and Cyanne Fernandez in a groove for the Vulcans, neither team got much going in extra innings, even as they often started with a runner one second because of the tiebreaker rule.
Concordia (13-8-2, 3-3) scored in the 11th, but Kristen Ishii answered with a sacrifice fly for UHH in the bottom half of the inning.
Trying to answer again in the 13th, Menjivar started on second and moved to third on Amanda Lara’s sacrifice. Maria Steadmon sent a fly ball to right, and Menjivar, with Perreira in her ear, stayed close to the bag in case it was caught, and waited to see if it dropped in.
It did, but “all she heard was tag and she never went,” Perreira said.
With two outs, Ishii had a lengthy battle with Harvey, fouling off five pitches, before being called out on a third strike that Perreira objected to.
Fernandez (0-1) was the touch-luck loser, working seven innings of sterling relief, allowing two runs, none earned, and four hits with two strikeouts.
“They’re a good team, we’re a good team,” Perreira said. “We haven’t been playing a lot. We made a lot of mistakes that you can’t see. Pitch count and different things.”
Little went right for UH-Hilo in the 92-minute nightcap, which was called because of darkness. After taking a no-decision and allowing two of the Eagles’ three home runs in the first game, Danielle Wilson (4-1) suffered her first loss, leaving in the fifth as the Eagles broke open the game with five runs.
BethAnn McCann (6-1) pitched a five-hitter for Concordia, and Amy Eilefson was 5 for 8 with five RBIs in the doubleheader.
Danielle Pulido had the Vulcans’ other home run in the first game, a two-run shot in the fifth. Pulido, Gaspar and Mary Kawano each had three hits. Gaspar was walked four times, and Toshonnie Baker hit a run-scoring double in the fifth to tie the game 5-5, helping to set a long afternoon in motion.
“They know, they just have to stay focused,” Perreira said. “That was a tough way for anyone to lose.”