HILO, Hawai`i—Hawai`i Hilo head baseball coach Kallen Miyataki has a pretty healthy head of hair. But after three straight nail bitters, including two walk-off wins for the Vulcans, you couldn't be surprised if some thinning began to take place.

For the second time in three games, his team provided a stressful but happy ending during a 7-4 walk-off win in the first game on Monday's doubleheader against Fresno Pacific. Phillip Steering blasted a three-homer deep over the leftfield fence in the bottom of the ninth inning to cap a four-run rally and another comeback win.

The Sunbirds bounced back to win the nightcap 5-1 to salvage a split of the doubleheader and of the four-game series. Fresno Pacific leaves town with a 13-16 overall record and an even 10-10 record in Pacific West Conference play. The Vulcans are now 7-17 on the year and are 7-15 in league play.

The first game began as a pitcher's duel before ending with Steering's fireworks. Making only his second start of the season, Drew Ichikawa pitched shutout baseball through the first six innings of play. 11 of his outs were fly balls and he gave up only five hits to that point.

His counterpart Josue Mendivil gave up a run in the first inning after Jacob Grijalva's single brought home Kyle Yamada. But he got through the next four innings unscathed before leaving the game trailing 1-0 in the fifth.

His teammates took him out of the potential loss column with a big inning in the seventh.  Hunter Villanueva, who had tripled but was stranded in the third, crushed a home run to left to tie the game with one swing of the bat. A single, a fielder's choice and an error chased Ichikawa from his productive game. A few batters later, Eddie Sievers singled home two runners to give the Sunbirds a 3-1 lead.

FPU added another run in the eighth when Villanueva doubled and was brought home on Joey Gallegos single.

But the home team began yet another comeback rally in the eighth. Steering singled and Grijalva was hit by a pitch, setting the table for Austin Forney, who responded with a double to chase both home.  In the top half of the ninth, relievers Devan Elson and Brandyn Lee-Lahano combined to keep the Sunbirds off the board, setting up the stirring ninth.

Against FPU closer Matt Bergandi, Michael Suguro led off the inning by taking a Bergandi pitch to the back. Sugimoto was also hit by a pitch, and both runners soon moved up on a wild pitch. Miyata then called a safety squeeze, which was executed to perfection by Yamada and pinch runner Reese Kato, tying the game at 4-4.

With runners now on first and second, Vulcan fans hoped for a base hit to bring home the winning run. Instead, Steering delivered a monster no-doubter deep into the night to send his teammates flying out of the dugout to dogpile the junior first baseman as soon as he crossed the plate.

The Sunbirds had 11 hits, three of them by Villanueva, who came up a single shy of hitting for the cycle.  Steering, Segovia, Suguro and Forney all had two hits each for UHH. Lee-Lahano got the win out of the bullpen, his first as a collegian.

The second game certainly lacked the drama of the first. Each team scored in their half of the first inning without the benefit of a hit. FPU added another run in the second and then scored two in the third when Baron Bower and Joey Gallegos traded places with doubles. Gallegos two-bagger drove in two runs to make it 4-1. The visitors added another run in the sixth on a sacrifice bunt to drive the score to 5-1.

Meanwhile, Fresno Pacific's Nic Boatman was throwing blanks at the Vulcans. Making just his fourth start of the year, he had a no-hitter through 5.2 innings of work, despite allowing four walks and hitting a batter. Steering ended that with two outs in the sixth with a deep drive off the centerfield fence, diving into third base with a triple. But he was stranded there when Cole Nagamine's line drive was snagged at third base.

Boatman, just a freshman, gave up a lead single to Grijalva to begin the seventh and final inning, but then induced a double play and a soft line out to end the game. He improved to 2-2 on the season.

Steering finished the series by reaching base 13 of the 18 times he came to the plate.

The Vulcans now hit the road for a pair of tough four-games series at Point Loma (April 15-17) and California Baptist (April 19-20).