HILO, Hawai`i--Good pitching and timely hitting can sometimes overcome a multitude of errors, evidence produced during Sunday nights' 6-4 Hawai`i Hilo victory over Academy of Art at Wong Stadium.

The Vulcans took a 2-1 series lead over the Urban Knights with the win, improving to 3-2 in Pacific West Conference play and to 3-4 overall. Academy of Art fell to 7-13 on  the year and to 3-4 in conference action. The teams will meet for a final time on Monday night, 6 p.m. at Wong Stadium.

Alec Telles pitched three strong innings of relief, Kamalu Kamoku fanned five batters in a two-inning save and Dylan Sugimoto drove in what proved to be the winning run in the sixth inning with a single to help the Vulcans overcome five errors and get the victory. 

UHH committed all of those miscues in the first four innings of play. They spotted the Urban Knights a 2-0 lead in the top of the first despite only one hit given up by starter Thomas Warren. AAU also added two more unearned runs in the fourth. But the visitors from San Francisco had some defensive lapses of their own with three errors in the first inning that led to four UHH runs. The Vulcans jumped on the opportunity, with Michael Suguro and Phillip Steering providing a pair of hits to help get the free runners home.

After the first inning AAU pitcher Chris Petrosie pitched five strong innings and was tied at 4-4 going into the sixth. But he finally ran out of gas after facing 30 batters, allowing a walk, hit batter and Sugimoto's RBI single. Kyle Yamada followed with a sacrifice fly to provide insurance, putting the home team on the leader board at 6-4. 

Telles and Kamoku took care of matters from there. Telles gave up just two hits in three innings of work and didn't walk a batter. Kamoku followed by striking out the side in the eighth inning, setting up a drama filled ninth. The 6-0, 285-pounder flame thrower gave up a lead-off single, and two batters latter another base hit. But he struck out two pinch hitters, including the final out of the game, to pick up his first save of the season.

Telles earned the win to improve to 1-1 in 2017. Sugimoto had two hits, including a triple and Suguro had a pair of hits as well. Marciano Reichel had three of AAU's eight hits to lead the visitors.