UHH softball sweeps Chaminade; baseball splits

SOFTBALL

With the final push for the Pacific West Conference postseason heating up, UH-Hilo Softball picked up a pair of key victories over Chaminade for the doubleheader sweep, 2-1 and 4-1, Saturday afternoon at the Silversword Field at Sand Island Beach Park.

The Vulcans continued to solidify their playoffs potential after claiming their sixth-straight victory to sit at No. 3 in the conference standings.

No. 16 Concordia University Irvine recently locked up the PacWest regular season title, currently holding a 22-2 record with four conference games to go. Elsewhere, it’s going to be a tight race for the remaining three postseason spots with teams having from anywhere between four and 10 conference contests yet to be played.

Both of UH-Hilo’s runs in the first game came with Kanoe PIltz at the plate. In the top of the second, the designated player dropped a single to right-center field to score Lexie Tilton from second base after leading the inning off with a drawn walk.

In the sixth inning with the score tied, 1-1, Piltz hit a sharp chopper that couldn’t be handled by the Silverswords shortstop, bringing Makena Nera home for the game-winning run.

Chloe Sales earned her fourth win in the form of her third complete game of the season, allowing just three hits and one run. It was the third win in the last three appearances for Sales as she dropped her conference-only ERA to 1.32.

Nera and Jayda Favela each scooped up seven assists at third base and shortstop, respectively, as Kiani Nakamura tallied two assists and four putouts at second base. Sales induced 17 groundouts against just three flyouts.

Madison Rabe added on another complete-game victory in the second game, scattering nine hits, three walks and one hit batsman to allow just one run in improving her overall record to 8-2 on the season. In contrast to Game 1, Rabe induced 17 flyouts against just two groundouts.

UH-Hilo plated a pair of runs in the opening frame, bashing out four consecutive hits with RBI knocks by Victoria Macias and Tilton.

The second and third innings saw similar sequences of events with Rayna White and Piltz driving in RBI hits to put the final score at 4-1.

Chaminade threatened in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings with six totals hits but nothing to show for except nine stranded runners. Rabe ended the game with a backwards ‘K’ to the potential game-tying run at the plate.

UH-Hilo moved to a 21-14 record (14-10 PacWest) while Chaminade moved to 10-13 in conference (14-19 overall). The two teams will return to Sand Island Beach Park tomorrow for another doubleheader, but this time for non-conference matchups.

The Vulcans will be back on the Big Island to close out the regular season next weekend, hosting Chaminade April 20 and HPU on April 21.

The four-team PacWest Conference Championship postseason tournament is set for May 1-3 in San Rafael, California at Dominican.

• • •

BASEBALL

If the Vulcans’ other inter-island baseball matchups over recent years are of any indication, then buckle up because Division II baseball in Hawai’i will now provide twice the fun.

UH-Hilo Baseball split two marathon games with Chaminade in a 6-4 extra-innings loss and an 11-10 victory Saturday afternoon to wrap up the season series in Pacific West Conference play at Francis Wong Stadium.

In Chaminade’s first season of play, the two teams matched up nine times with plenty of excitement and action to go around. UH-Hilo came away with the 5-4 season series victory, but other than a 14-0 shellacking dealt to the Silverswords last week, every game was decided by three runs or less. Three of the matchups had to be decided in extra innings.

Saturday’s contests were no different as the Vulcans mounted a four-run ninth inning frame to extend the opening-game action. Game 2 started with seven runs for the Silverswords in the top of the first before the Vulcans climbed back with five and four runs in the third and fourth innings, respectively.

UH-Hilo is not quite out of the PacWest postseason picture just yet, but the odds are slim. Many teams in the conference still have upward of 10 league games to be played while the Vulcans have just two remaining, which they must win in order to have a fighting chance at sneaking into the No. 4 spot.

Less than a week after becoming UH-Hilo’s Division II career strikeouts leader, Aaron Davies got the start for the 35th time in his collegiate tenure, going 7.0 innings with four runs allowed but ringing up seven strikeouts. The lefty is one away from tying Jordan Kurokawa’s single-season mark of 68 set in 2015.

With the game down to its final outs of regulation and the Silverswords nursing a 4-0 lead, the Vulcans came alive. Cody Min and Arthur Soto singled through the 4-hole and 6-hole, respectively, to get on base but were almost left there until Mark Fedro came through with a two-out single to center field.

Chris Varljen had a busy day in left field, tracking down seven fly outs in his 10th start of the season. Following Fedro’s two-RBI knock in the bottom of the ninth, Varljen sent the ball out of the park over the left-field fence for a game-tying two-run home run.

Chaminade managed to plate two runs in the top of the 11th inning to move ahead before closing out the victory.

James Yamasaki got his third start of the season on the mound in game two, but it was a tough go for the senior with a mix of hit batsman, a walk, an error and a wild pitch in the opening frame that brought four runs across for the Silverswords. Chaminade cashed in by following up with two base hits to take a 7-0 lead.

Trent Jackson continued his hot streak of hitting by getting one run back on an RBI double in the bottom half of the first inning. Jackson has clumped together eight hits over the last five games while making his first appearance in the outfield with the start in right field for Game 2 (recording three putouts).

Min, Soto and Jackson started the bottom of the third with back-to-back-to-back base hits before it was Chaminade’s time for the wheels to fall off. Fedro was walked and Mason Cook and Varljen were beaned for three gifted runs to make it a two-run ballgame. The Silverswords catcher attempted to back-pick Fedro at third base, but the ball sailed into left field to bring in two more runs to tie the score at 7-7.

Chaminade brought out the bats to plate a pair of runs in the following inning, but chaos continued with a two-out rally in the bottom of the fourth as Cook drove in a run before Varljen tied the game up on a wild-pitch dropped third strikeout. A balk brought in the go-ahead run and Kyle Casados legged out a slow-bouncing bunt with the throw down sailing into right field to bring in another run to make it 11-9.

The Silverswords got another run back — on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch — before Sebastian Garcia entered out of the bullpen for a strikeout to retire the side with the bases loaded. John Navarro entered in the last inning to wrap up his second save of the season.

Cody Hirata was tagged with the win, entering to put away the final two outs of the top of the fourth including an inning-ending strikeout.

UH-Hilo moved to 17-27 overall (10-20 PacWest) while Chaminade moved to an 8-20 conference record (15-28 overall).

The Vulcans will host HPU for the final five home games next weekend, April 19-21, at Francis Wong Stadium. It will be doubleheaders both Friday (3 p.m. start) and Saturday (1:30 p.m. start) with a lone matchup Sunday at 2 p.m.

The four-team PacWest Conference Championship postseason tournament will be May 8-10 at Azusa Pacific’s Cougar Baseball Complex.