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HILO, Hawai`i—At some point, the luck of UH Hilo pitcher Cyanne Fernandez and her Vulcans had to change. That some point came on Sunday afternoon in the second game of a doubleheader against conference leading Dixie State.

Fernandez pitched a shutout to pick up her first win of the season and Cristina Menjivar came off the bench to single home the winning run to give UHH a 1-0 victory, snapping a six-game losing streak. Dixie State won the opener via mercy rule in five innings, 8-0.

The Vulcans moved to 8-10 on the year with the triumph and to 2-6 in the Pacific West Conference. Dixie State is now 20-5 overall and 6-2 in the PacWest.

Prior to today's game, Fernandez, a junior righthander, had pitched 14 innings in her last two games, giving up just one run, yet was 0-2 for her troubles. Today, she added to her mastery, throwing another scoreless seven innings, allowing just three hits, three walks while fanning three. In her last 21 innings (three outings), she has given up one run and 11 total hits.

Dixie State's Jessica Gonzalez doubled in the sixth and Janessa Bassett tripled in the seventh but in each case Fernandez left them stranded.  Conversely, the Trailblazers' Alexandria Melendez had been doing the same to the Vulcans. Three times UHH had moved runners to second base, including on Bailey Gaspar's double in the fourth, but the Vulcans couldn't move any of them to the third.

Until the seventh.

Danielle Pulido led off the inning with a single. Mari Kawano pinch ran for Pulido and moved to second on Fernandez's second sacrifice of the game. Menjivar, who was resting and not starting at first base for the first time this season, laced a single the opposite way to left field and Kawano scampered home with the winning run.

Pulido had two hits for the Vulcans, who overcame a pair of errors in the field to get the much needed win. They were also playing without starting shortstop Kawano, starting outfielder Kacie Freudenberger and infielder Toshonnie Baker, all out with injuries.

The first game was the polar opposite from the nightcap.

Dixie State got on the board in the top of the first without hitting the ball out of the infield. They scored twice via a lead-off walk, two sacrifice bunts, a bunt hit and a fielder's choice to take a 2-0 lead.

Vulcan starting pitcher Danielle Wilson would then proceed to retire eight batters in a row, four of them by strikeout. But the hinges come undone in the fourth when Gonzalez, who had a two-foot bunt base hit in the first inning, slammed a 220-feet home run over the left-centerfield fence. That fueled a Trailblazer rally that chased Wilson from the pitcher's circle as Dixie State plated three more runs to make it 5-0.

Hawaii Hilo finally got its first hit in the fourth when Kristin Ishii laced a single to left. Trailblazer ace Brooklyn Beardshear had retired the first nine Vulcans she faced. In the top of the fifth, DSU added three more runs, two of them driven in on a single by Arista Honey.

That put the mercy rule in effect, although the Vulcans gamely tried to fight it off in the bottom half of the inning. Singles by Jordan Millwood and Ishii, along with a fielder's choice loaded the bases, but Beardshear induced a line out to end the game.

Beardshear improved to 9-1 with the win, allowing just three hits, one walk, and she struck out two. Ishii had two of the Vulcan hits. Gonzalez, Honey and Shelby Yung each drove in two runs for DSU.

The Vulcans now entertain another of the PacWest's best next Saturday (March 18), hosting California Baptist in a noon doubleheader.