UHH spring sports draw to a close

SOFTBALL

UH-Hilo’s softball team went 4-0 over the weekend, sweeping Chaminade in wins of 3-2 and 4-0 to punch a ticket to the Pacific West Conference Championship on Saturday before sweeping HPU in games of 1-0 and 7-6 on Sunday.

Following the pair of Sunday contests, the Vulcans celebrated their lone senior — Maya Lee Saneishi.

The PacWest Conference Championships are set for May 1-3 at Dominican University in San Rafael, California.

In game one, Kanoe Piltz continued to hit hot, going 3 for 3 with a RBI double slammed to left-center field in the fourth inning for the Vulcans’ lone run of the game.

Makena Nera scored all the way from first base on Piltz’s hit, having reached base on a single to right field. The sophomore also collected two putouts and four assists at third base.

Tehani Seto went the distance for the fifth time this season, going 7.0 innings with just four hits allowed in the shutout. HPU had just three runners reach scoring position but all were prevented from coming across the plate.

Once again in game two, the Vulcans took it to extra innings with an inter-island foe, but it was the Sharks who chipped away late in the game to force extended playing time in the final game of the regular season. Three timely hits in the top of the seventh scored a pair of runs as UH-Hilo escaped with the bases juiced and the score still tied at 6-6.

Victoria Macias drew a four-pitch lead-off walk in the bottom of the eighth and moved over to third base on a sac bunt from Nera and a single by Piltz, setting up Mia Joaquin’s walk-off single on a screaming line drive hit at the third baseman. Joaquin had a 3-for-5 outing with a run scored.

Madison Rabe had previously entered in the sixth inning in a rare save situation but ended up with her 10th win of the season in 2.2 innings of work, including going three-up-three-down in the top of the eighth.

Rayna White went 3 for 3 with two doubles, three runs scored and two RBI on top of two walks drawn.

UH-Hilo moved to a 25-15 record (18-10 PacWest) while HPU moved to 9-31 overall (5-21 in conference).

Next stop for the Vulcans is the PacWest Conference Championship postseason tournament set for May 1-3 in San Rafael, California at Dominican. Joining them will be regular-season champ Concordia University Irvine and Azusa Pacific. Biola Dominican and Chaminade will battle it out for the final spot with only a handful of games left this week.

The wins over Chaminade also helped the Vulcans claim victory in the 2023-24 PacWest Hawai’i Challenge.

In an effort to elevate Hawai’i-based rivalries, the PacWest Hawai’i Challenge has awarded the top school in athletics competition among the state’s Division II institutions going back to the late 1970s.

Comprising 10 sports that all three schools participate in, points are awarded from head-to-head Pacific West Conference matchups as well as final placements at conference-ending championship events. The team with the highest total gets three points while the second highest gets two and the third-place finisher receives one.

More information is available at HiloAthletics.com/PacWestHawaii.

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TENNIS

Both of UH-Hilo’s tennis teams ended their PacWest Championship runs with seventh-place finishes on Saturday in Surprise, Ariz.

The men’s team, which was defeated in the opening round by HPU, fell into the consolation bracket and was dropped by Fresno Pacific on Friday before taking down MSU Denver in the final match of the season.

The Sunbirds won two of the three doubles matches, but Hilo won the first singles match on Court 1 to tie it at 1-1. Cian McDonnell provided that win, moving up from his normal No. 2 slot to the top spot. Sven Bangert got FPU back on top on Court 6 (6-4, 6-1), then the Vulcans countered with Luca Matheiowetz’s victory on Court 3. One minute later, the Sunbirds took a 3-2 lead on Emilio Seelbach’ victory on Court 5. FPU clinched with Ben Cronau’s three-set win on Court 4.

The Vulcans ended their year on a high note with a 4-0 win over the Roadrunners. UH-Hilo earned the doubles point with wins on Court 1 and Court 2 with 6-2 and 6-1 wins, respectively, and then cruised to three fairly quick singles matches. Ryo Minakata won on Court 1 (6-1, 6-3), McDonnell won on Court 2 (6-4, 6-4) and Matheiowetz triumphed on Court 4 (6-2, 6-0).

The Vulcans end their season at 7-9, while the Roadrunners wrapped up at 9-14.

After falling to Azusa Pacific in the quarterfinals, UH-Hilo’s women’s squad entered the consolation bracket, first taking on Biola before finishing against Dominican.

The Eagles advanced to the Fifth Place game by winning on the top courts in a 4-2 win over Hawaii Hilo. After taking the doubles point, Biola won in straight sets on courts one (Colbeyshae Emery) and two (Lilly McNeill) to take a 3-0 lead. The Vulcans would battle back with a victory on court three (Hikari Osaki) and court six (Julia Barden) to make it 3-2, the Eagles closed it out on court five with Alex Mann winning a battle over Hana Hofmanova, 6-4, 7-5.

The Vulcans won the doubles point and survived a tight battle on the singles courts for a 4-2 season-ending win over Dominican. The Penguins won the top two singles courts via Audrey Rafols and Gina Dudley, but the Vulcans picked up two team points from Julia Barden on court five and Satoho Toriumi on court four, both in straight sets. Still, it would be another hour and 15 minutes before the Vulcans would clinch on three where Hikari Osaki won a marathon battle with Deepalakshmi Vanaraja, 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2). The Vulcans end their season at 11-9, while the Penguins wrap up at 12-9.

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BASEBALL

In the final league games of the season, UH-Hilo’s baseball team went 2-3 in a weekend series against HPU — notching wins of 4-1 and 7-6 while between suffering losses of 14-2, 7-6 and 4-1 — in Pacific West Conference play on Friday afternoon at Francis Wong Stadium.

Fifth-year senior Aaron Davies made his 36th career start on the rubber in his 49th overall pitching appearance and matched a career-high nine strikeouts while etching his name into the UH-Hilo record books. The left-handed pitcher opened the top of the second inning with his second strikeout of the game, bringing his season total to 69 to set a new Vulcans single-season record in the Division II era (2009–present).

Davies’ season total now sits at 76, surpassing the previous record of 68 set by Jordan Kurokawa nearly 10 years ago in 2015.

“I’m in good company — guys like Jordan Kurokawa and Dylan Spain,” Davies said in a UH-Hilo press release. “It’s good to be in good company with my old teammates too. t’s really rewarding knowing I can always look back at it and have good fond memories of Hilo.”

Earlier this month, Davies also became the Vulcans’ Division-II era career leader in strikeouts after surpassing Kekoa Lee’s (08-11) mark of 157. His career total is now at 174.

The Vulcans (19-30 ovr, 11-21 conf.) will close out their season on O’ahu with another matchup with UH Manoa, April 30, at Les Murakami Stadium. University of Hawai’i Alumni Relations will be hosting “Pa’ina at The Les” on The Aloha Deck along the third base line.

Standing at No. 8 out of the PacWest’s nine teams, UH-Hilo will not make a playoff appearance.

Event registration is available at HiloAthletics.com/paina. For more information, email contact@uhalumni.org.