This Week—Saturday, April 15 vs. Chaminade, UHH Softball Field, Noon, Live stats at www.hiloathletics.com.
Last Games—Won two games vs. Hawai`i Pacific on Sunday, 3-1 (9 inn.) and 3-2
Record: 19-19 overall, 10-12 Pacific West Conference

Walk This Way: The UH Hilo softball team returned home for the first time in three weeks last Sunday when they hosted Hawai`i Pacific, and they treated softball-starved fans to a pair of walk-off wins against the Sharks. Freshman Brinell Kaleikini blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth of the first game to provide the dramatics, and Bailey Gaspar ripped a single to right field in the bottom of the seventh in the second game to send the Vulcans streaming to the field in celebration.

Streaking: The Vulcans have now won five games in a row, their longest win streak of the season. They sit a .500 with a 19-19 overall record, the first time since March 11 that they have been even or better.

Senior Salute: Saturday's twinbill against Chaminade will be the final home games of the season and five seniors will be honored after the second game for their contributions to Vulcan athletics.—Danielle Wilson, Samantha Lauro, Danielle Pulido, Amanda Lara, and Cristina Menjivar.

Brinell's Bomb Leads to Award: UHH rookie Brinell Kaleikini hit a bomb on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth inning against Hawai`i Pacific, giving her team the win and herself the Pacific West Conference Freshman of the Week honors. Her shot over the leftfield fence was a no-doubter from the moment it left the bat, sending her team out of the dugout to wait for her at home plate. It was her second home run of the year and her second PacWest Freshman of the Week honor (Feb. 6). The Honolulu native and Moanalua High School grad also broke up a Shark no-hitter in the second game of the doubleheader.

Pitching with a Purpose: The Vulcans had some key hits to win the doubleheader against the Sharks, but more importantly had two outstanding pitching performances to help lead them to victory. Cyanne Fernandez was the standout in game one, pitching the complete extra inning game. She gave up just the one digit on a home run, and otherwise scattered seven hits, struck out six and did not walk a batter to improve to 5-3 on the season. Leah Gonzales was the winner in the second game (6-5), giving up six hits, two walks, two runs and three strikeouts in the victory.

Pitching Progress: Junior Cyanne Fernandez now sports a 2.42 ERA to go with that 5-3 record. She has five complete games, has given up just 52 hits in 63 innings of work and has walked just 16 batters. Leah Gonzales has a 4.38 ERA and a 6-5 record.

Hitting Headlines: The Vulcans had only nine total hits in the HPU doubleheader, but are still hitting .284 as a team, with six players hitting .300 or better. Mari Kawano leads the squad at .353 with a team-best 11 stolen bases. Bailey Gaspar is next at .345 (see next paragraph), and Kristen Ishii is right behind her at .341. Danielle Pulido checks in at .336 with seven doubles and 24 RBI. With fewer plate appearances but still topping the .300 mark are Jordan Millwood (.320) and Leah Gonzales (.310). Pulido and Maria Steadmon do some of the unsung work, both have eight sacrifice bunts this year, tied for third best in the conference.

Gaudy Numbers for Gaspar: Junior third baseman Bailey Gaspar not only leads the Vulcans in nearly every offensive category, she also lists in the PacWest Top 10 in a number of lists. She is tied for the conference lead in home runs (10) and tops all players in walks (33). She is fourth in slugging percentage (.728), fifth in on-base percentage (.514), fifth in runs scored (34), and eighth in RBI (31).

Type it in Ink: Four players have started every game thus far (38) for the Vulcans—Bailey Gaspar, Maria Steadmon, Kristen Ishii and Brinell Kaleikini.

Chaminade Clippings: The Silverswords will come to Hilo hoping to snap a seven-game losing streak. They are 6-32 on the year and 3-19 in the PacWest. In late March, they split a trio of doubleheaders with Holy Names and Notre Dame de Namur (twice) before hitting the losing skid. Rainelle Matsuoka leads the offense with a .330 average and has seven doubles and five home runs. The Vulcans have won the last 12 games in the all-time series between the two.

Callen's back: Returning for his 21^st season at UHH, but his first since 2009 is head coach Callen Perreira. The school's all-time winningest coach is back after four seasons at College of Southern Nevada (136-104). Perreira's first season in the Vulcan dugout was in 1990 (13-15) and by his second season he had led his team to a program-record 39 wins (39-9). His teams won a pair of Pacific West Conference titles (2004-05) and they made NCAA regional appearances from 2005-07. His 1992 team placed fourth at the NAIA World Series. Including games thus far in 2017, his all-time mark as a UHH coach is now 595-364, and his all-time collegiate record is 732-469-3.

PacWest Progress: California Baptist, ranked No. 20 nationally, remains on top of the latest Pacific West Conference standings, through 4/4.
 
Team                                                     PWC      Overall
California Baptist                                    22-2       30-7
Dixie State                                              17-5       32-9
Azusa Pacific                                          17-7       26-16                                 
Concordia                                               15-7       29-12-2
Academy of Art                                      13-11      21-21                               
Dominican                                              15-13      18-26
Hawai`i Hilo                                            10-12      19-19
Hawai`i Pacific                                          9-13      20-18
Notre Dame de Namur                            8-14        8-25
BYU-Hawaii                                             7-15       10-24
Chaminade                                              3-19         6-32
Holy Names                                             2-20         4-31