UH-Hilo only picked up one win in a four-game series at Dixie State, but Phillip Steering’s four home runs earned him his second Pacific West Conference Player of the Week honor Monday.
The senior first baseman went 6-for-15 in St. George, Utah, drove in eight runs, scored seven times, hit two doubles,and walked three times.
The Lakewood, Calif., native also was tabbed as the PacWest Player of the Week in February and is hitting .313 on the season with seven doubles, two triples, five home runs and 20 RBI.
The Vulcans (12-16) are preparing to host top-ranked Azusa Pacific on April 9-10 at Wong Stadium.
• Vulcans freshman Alessandro Giuliato was selected PacWest Tennis Player of the Week after going 4-0 in singles play to improve to 14-1.
Next up for UH-Hilo is the conference championships in mid-April in Arizona.
Baseball ‘Bows are rocked
Pacific pounded 16 hits against eight Hawaii pitchers for a 10-1 baseball victory Monday at Klein Family Field in Stockton, Calif.
For UH, it was supposed to be a nonconference bridge game between Big West road series against UC Irvine this past weekend and UC Davis this coming weekend. Instead, the ‘Bows were left to ponder a starting pitcher who continues to struggle and an offense that went silent two days after the most productive showing as a Big West member.
It was the fourth underwhelming start in a row for left-hander Dominic DeMiero, who exited with a 3-0 deficit after allowing six hits and a walk to 11 batters.
The Tigers ended the drama with a seven-run sixth against three UH pitchers.
Pacific improved to 11-16. The ‘Bows, who fell to 16-10, open a three-game series at UC Davis on Friday.
– Tribune News Service
UH hoops gets commit
The Hawaii basketball team recently received its first verbal commitment of the spring from Eddie Stansberry, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard at the City College of San Francisco.
Stansberry, who has two years of eligibility remaining starting with the 2018-19 season, scored 13 points per game at CCSF while hitting 42.8 percent of his 3-point attempts. The Bay Area native took an official visit to the Manoa campus a little over a week ago.
“Not too long ago I verbally committed with coach Eran Ganot, shortly after my visit there at UH,” Stansberry said in a phone interview Monday. “It was great. It’s different than San Francisco, of course. What I told a lot of people coming back, was that, other than the campus being beautiful and nice itself, outside of the campus, I can’t really think of one negative in Hawaii. The weather, the community, the people are great.”
CCSF won the 2017-18 California Community College Athletic Association championship. Stansberry scored 21 points in the title game against San Diego City College and was named to the all-tournament team, following up on all-state honors from the regular season.
San Jose State had also offered a scholarship to Stansberry, who can sign as soon as April 11.
He is the fourth UH commit for next season, joining fall signees Mate Colina, Owen Hulland and Dawson Carper. The previous three are all big men, 6 feet 11 or taller.
UH is believed to have one more scholarship to award to a new player or returning walk-on for next season.
– Tribune News Service