HILO – Two of the top 25 baseball teams in the NCAA Division II faced off at Francis Wong Stadium Monday afternoon as 23rd-ranked University of Hawai‘i at Hilo got the best of No. 11 Point Loma Nazarene with Pacific West Conference play doubleheader wins of 2-1 and 6-4.
UH-Hilo jumped on the scoreboard early and preserved the narrow game-one victory before answering back several times to grind out its second win of the day.
We’ve always played [PLNU] pretty tough,” Vulcans head coach Kallen Miyataki said, “even at their place — so I expected great games and I think the fans were pleased with two great games. We made a lot of errors along the way and I don’t think we pitched well, but we overcame our mistakes — lucky for our timely hitting that came through.”
With the Vulcans’ first hit of the afternoon, lead-off batter Casey Yamauchi reached a career milestone with hit No. 200 on a double to deep center field.
Point Loma got a run back in the top of the fourth as Scott Anderson led off with a single up the middle.
After getting outs on consecutive batters, Hunter Otjen cashed in with a single to right field to bring Anderson across the plate.
After the score, another Sea Lions player got on via walk and both moved over on a wild pitch to occupy third and second bases, but Vulcans starting pitcher Christian DeJesus induced a ground out to end the threat.
PLNU threatened again in the fifth by getting two runners on with two outs, but DeJesus again ended it by inducing a grounder to shortstop.
In their final at-bat, the Sea Lions led off the ninth with a single but Vulcans closer Jake Liberta put PLNU down in order to end the game and notch his sixth save of the season.
Yamauchi finished the game batting four for four with six defensive assists and one turned double play.
DeJesus got his second win on the mound, going 7.0 innings with one earned run and three walks given up while matching a career-best seven strikeouts.
After trading runs in game two’s fourth inning — highlighted by a Ryan Cho solo homer — the Vulcans found themselves down 3-1 after the Sea Lions plated a pair of runs in the top of the fifth with a Derek Lukes RBI-double and an Otjen RBI-single.
Bradyn Yoshida and Yamauchi got on base with an error and an intentional walk, respectively, as Cody Min cashed in with an RBI line drive to left-center field followed by a deep game-tying double from Cho.
Alec Yamauchi brought in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly and Tweedt drove in the winning-run on a single to center field.
Both teams traded another round of runs as John Navarro closed out the final two innings for his second save on the season.
Cho totaled three hits on the day and drove in the Vulcans’ first runs in each of the two contests.
UH-Hilo improved to 6-1 in the PacWest (13-2 overall) as Point Loma Nazarene moved to an 0-2 conference record (9-5 overall).
“Am I happy? Of course,” Miyataki said. “[I’m] ecstatic, but I’m already off to the next day. Game by game.”
UH-Hilo will close its home-opening slate with games against Azusa Pacific March 11 and 13 before returning in late April to host Chaminade and HPU.
For Point Loma, it was its first action of the PacWest Conference season after its originally-scheduled season-opening series with Fresno Pacific in late February was postponed.
In the latest West Region rankings released Monday, UH-Hilo moved up a spot to No. 3, swapping spots with Cal Poly Pomona. CSU San Bernardino held the top spot with PLNU right behind at the second slot.
