Rare is the game that ace pitcher Valerie Alvarado doesn’t have it.
Even rarer is the day that the UH-Hilo softball team’s bats don’t have it twice.
Add it all up Saturday and the Vulcans were swept for the first time this season, 9-1 and 3-1, at Kealakehe High in Kailua-Kona.
Things started off poorly for UHH (10-3 PacWest) when Alvarado failed to get out of the first inning in the first game as the Silverswords (9-7) scored nine times.
“Our worst inning of the season,” coach Callen Perreira said. “They hit the ball. Credit Chaminade, they found the holes.”
Chaminade pounded eight hits in chasing Alvarado, two apiece from Cheyne Obara (double, single, 2 RBIs) and Keaolani Takemura (single, triple, 3 RBIs.)
Alvarado (4-1) gave up seven runs in a third of an inning.
Meanwhile, Chaminade’s Taylor Genera (4-1) continued her resurgence, going the distance without giving up an earned run for four-hitter in the five-inning TKO.
UHH’s Leah Gonzales (3-1) kept the second game tighter but was matched by Madelyn Stockslager, and three hits, a hit batter and an error led to the go-ahead run scoring unearned in the fifth.
Takemura hit an RBI double in the third, but the Vulcans evened the score in the fourth when Darian Obara singled and scored on Markie Okamoto’s single to shortstop. Okamoto was the only Vul to finish with two hits in either game.
But that was the last of three hits Stockslager allowed in evening her record at 5-5 with a complete game.
Gonzales yielded nine hits and three runs (one earned) with three strikeouts in going the distance. The senior pitched 2 2/3 innings in the first game.
UHH will try to get back on track Sunday in another noon doubleheader at Kealakehe.
“I think we entered the day with a complacent attitude,” Perreira said. “They know that’s not who we are and that they need to be better (on Sunday).”