Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
Box Score 2

HILO, Hawai`i--The University of Hawaii Hilo used good pitching and timely hitting to win game one of Saturday's baseball doubleheader with Hawaii Pacific 5-2, then the Sharks used even better pitching and and a batch of late runs to salvage a split, 7-0, in the season openers for UHH at Wong Stadium.

Eric Vega tossed seven innings without giving up an earned run and Deric Valoroso, Jr. closed out the first game with three strikouts in the ninth. Impressive, it was, but HPU's Matthew Gunter topped that in the nightcap, firing a seven-inning no-hitter during the 7-0 victory.

UH Hilo will take a 1-1 overall record and Pacific West Conference mark into Sunday's doubleheader (noon), which are games three and four of the series. The Sharks are now 9-3 overall and also 1-1 in the PacWest.

In game one, the Vulcans jumped out to a 3-0 lead just two innings into the contest. In the first inning, Dylan Sugimoto led off with a double and one batter later, Philip Steering brough him home with a base hit. In the second, Austin Forney doubled and would later score on Jonathan Segovia's fielder's choice. 

The Vulcans would add two more insurance runs in the sixth inning. Cole Nagamine singled to jump start the stanza, and Jacob Grijalva and Reese Kato followed with base hits. Segovia then walked to bring in Nagamine and a Sugimoto fielder's choice plated Grijalva to make it 5-0.

To this point, Vega had kept the Sharks scoreless, scattering five hits. But in the seventh, three base hits and a three-bag error brought home two unearned runs to pull HPU within shouting distance, 5-2. But Thomas Warren pitched a scoreless eighth and Valoroso fanned the heart of the Shark order in the ninth to give UHH a 5-2 win in their 2017 season opener.

Vega gave up eight hits, no earned runs, walked one and struck out four. Steering had two hits as seven Vulcans entered the hit column.

Which is saying something, since not one Vulcan had a hit in game two. 

That game belonged to Gunter, a senior lefty who moved to 1-1 with the win. He survived four walks and two hit batters, and he struck out six--including the final three batters he faced. The Vulcans best chance to score came in the third inning when a pair of walks and two sacrifice bunts put runners on first and third base, but they couldn't get a run across.

Meanwhile, UHH starting pitcher, freshman Dylan Spain was effective through the first five innings, giving up just two hits and three runs, but the wheels came off in the sixth when the Sharks got to three Vulcan pitchers for four runs. They added two more runs in the seventh, which was way more than Gunter would need. 

Tanner Tokunaga scored three times in the second game for the Sharks and Codi Santana had a two-run double.