HILO, Hawai`i—Ahhh, it's good to be home.
After eight straight losses on the road, the UH Hilo baseball team returned home on Thursday night, rallying for a walk-off win over Holy Names, 8-7 at Wong Stadium.
With the bases loaded,
Cole Nagamine drilled a pitch to the left centerfield fence for a long, game-winning single to cap a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning to stun the visiting Hawks. The Vulcans snapped a nine-game losing streak with the win to improve to 4-11 in the Pacific West Conference and 4-13 overall. Holy Names is now 3-14 in league play and 6-24 overall.
Down 7-5 heading into their final three outs, the home team scored three runs before the Hawks could record an out.
Jonathan Segovia led off the inning with a single to right field, and pinch hitter
Marcus Calamese followed with a bloop double down the right field line to put runners on second and third.
Kyle Yamada then singled home Segovia with a safety squeeze bunt to make it a one-run game, with the PWC's leading hitter,
Phillip Steering at the plate.
Steering hit a hard ground ball to shortstop that was going to drive home the tying run anyway, but it was booted to keep the outs at zero and tie the game.
Kamalu Kamoku was hit by a pitch, setting up Nagamine to be the hero. He drilled a shot over the drawn-in outfielders heads, sending the Vulcans scrambling to the field in celebration.
It was quite a comeback for the Vulcans, who had only five hits through the first seven innings of play, and trailed 7-5 through the top of the eighth. A solo home run by
Jacob Grijalva in the bottom of the eighth gave some life to his team, setting up the dramatic ninth.
On the other side of the scorecard, the Hawks had battered Vulcan pitching for 12 hits and seven runs until Deric Valoroso entered the game. The submariner pitched the final 1.2 innings, allowing only one hit, no runs and struck out three to get the improbable win.
UHH finished with ten hits, four of them in the final inning. Nagamine, who had a home run earlier in the game, was 2-for-4 with three RBI to lead his team offensively. John Salda had three of HNU's 13 hits.
Holy Names got on the board first in the top of the first. Salda singled, moved to second base on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a ground out and then came home on Nick Snyder's base hit.
The Vulcans answered in the bottom of the second when Kamoku legged out a double after hitting the ball to the right centerfield fence, and Nagamine followed with his first home run of the season, sneaking the ball just inside the left field foul pole to make it 2-1 Vulcans.
The Hawks regained the lead in the third with the same duo. Salda singled and came home on Synder's double. Joshua Nelson then brought home Synder with a base hit to right field to make the score 3-2.
It was UHH's turn in the fourth. Two walks and two bunts, one by
Austin Forney and another on a squeeze play by Segovia led to a pair of runs to put the Vulcans back on top, 4-3. The Hawks then answered in the fifth with a double by Chris Gnos and a single by Paul Kennedy, chasing Vulcan starter
Eric Vega from the game.
Chance Colson entered and allowed a game-tying sacrifice fly, but then got the next two outs to get out of the inning with the game tied at 4-4.
The fourth lead change of the game came in the top of the sixth. A hit batter, a sacrifice bunt, an Evan Maecker single and a ground ball scored the first run. Gnos followed with another double to put the Hawks up 6-4 and send Colson out of the game. A diving catch by
Dylan Sugimoto with the bases loaded prevented more runs from scoring and ended the inning.
The Hawks added insurance in the eighth, taking advantage of three walks and a hit batter to make the scoreboard read 7-4. Grijalva got the run back in the bottom half of the inning with a no-doubter over the left centerfield fence, making the score 7-5, setting up the walk-off ninth.
The Vulcans and Hawks will resume their four-game series on Friday night with game two of the series, set again for 6 p.m. at Wong Stadium.
