HILO, Hawai`i—Academy of Art's best hitter turned into one of their best pitchers in salvaging a series split with Hawaii Hilo on Monday night at Wong Stadium, 5-1.
Alex Fernandez, normally AAU's centerfielder and lead-off batter, toed the rubber for game four of the series and threw his team to the win under the lights. The left-hander pitched 6.2 innings, allowing only three hits, one run, one walk and he fanned five.
The split in the series moved Academy of Art's record to 8-13 on the season and to 4-4 in the Pacific West Conference. Hawai`i Hilo is now 3-3 in conference action and 3-5 overall.
Brandyn Lee-Lehano took the hill to start the game, and used a pitcher's best friend to work out of trouble in the first and second innings. In both cases, with the bases loaded and one out, the freshman induced inning-ending ground ball double-plays to get out of the jam.
But his luck ran out in the third. After singles by Michael Maleski and Erick Luna, Izac Bauer drilled a triple past a diving
Kyle Yamada in left field, clearing the bases. A wild pitch brought in a third Urban Knight run to make it 3-0 after three innings.
Academy of Art added another run in the fourth with a two-out rally, with Maleski and Luna were involved again. Maleski singled and Luna followed with a double to centerfield to add another run to give the visitors a 4-0 lead.
On the other side of the scorebook, AAU pitcher and lead-off batter Fernandez was doing good work. Other than having to deal with
Phillip Steering, he was working his way through the Vulcan order. Steering singled in the first inning and hit a towering shot to the left field fence that was caught in the bottom of the fourth. Other than that, Fernandez gave up only one other hit through the first five innings.
In the sixth, after
Dylan Sugimoto was hit by a pitch and moved up to second on a fielder's choice, Steering drilled another ball into left field for a base hit to bring home UHH's first run. Still, Fernandez made it into the seventh before needing bullpen help after an error and a walk put runners on base. But reliever Jacob Green came in and put out the fire.
Green worked out of trouble again in the Vulcan eighth after Steering laced his third hit of the night but was left stranded. He earned the save with 2.1 innings of scoreless work.
The Urban Knights added another run in the ninth and had 11 total hits in the game. Luna had three of those hits, Maleski had two and scored twice, Jackson Murphy had a pair of doubles and Bauer had two base hits and drove in three runs.
The Vulcans will now hit the road, traveling to Concordia (March 18-20) and Azusa Pacific (March 23-25) for a pair of four-game series.
