This Week—Friday/Saturday, April 21-22 @BYU-Hawaii, 1 pm Friday/Noon Saturday,
Live stats at www.byuhawaiisports.com.
Last Games—Won two games vs. Chaminade, 4-3, 12-6
Record: 21-19 overall, 12-12 Pacific West Conference
Senior Salute: The Vulcans swept a pair of games from Chaminade last Saturday on Senior Day, taking down the Silverswords 4-3 and 12-6. In both games UHH had to come back from a deficit. In the opener, the Vulcans trailed 3-0 before putting four runs on the board in the sixth. In the second game, UH Hilo spotted Chaminade a 2-0 lead before taking over by putting up a crooked seven on the board in the third inning.
Streaking: The Vulcans have now won seven games in a row, their longest win streak of the season. They are over .500 with a 21-19 overall record, the first time since March 4 that they have been on the winning side of the ledger.
On to Oahu: The Vulcans will spend the rest of the 2017 season on the island of Oahu. They will take on BYU-Hawaii this coming Friday and Saturday, followed by an island-hopper the following weekend to take on Chaminade (May 5) and Hawai`i Pacific (May 6) to wrap up the season.
Senior Sendoff: Saturday's twinbill against Chaminade was the final home games of the season and five seniors were honored for their contributions to Vulcan athletics.—
Danielle Wilson,
Samantha Lauro,
Danielle Pulido,
Amanda Lara, and
Cristina Menjivar. Menjivar hit a home run in the first game to jump start the four-run sixth inning, while Pulido had four hits on the day, including a grand slam in the second contest.
Brinell's Bomb(s) Leads to Award(s): For the second week in a row, rookie outfielder
Brinell Kaleikini has been named the Pacific West Conference Freshman of the Week. And in both weeks, hitting a game-winning home run had a lot to do with it. Against Chaminade, Kaleikini hit a three-run homer in the sixth with the Vulcans trailing (3-1), to put them over the top in the first game of the doubleheader. She also had two hits in the second game and an RBI, including a double. The previous week against Hawai`i Pacific, the Moanalua High School grad hit a three-run shot in the bottom of the ninth inning to walk-off against the Sharks. This was Kaleikini's third PWC award, as she was also named freshman of the week the first weekend of the season.
Gonzales Gems: The winning pitcher in the last three games for the Vulcans has been freshman
Leah Gonzales. The Wilmington, California native came out of the bullpen in both games against Chaminade, pitching 2.2 innings in the first game and four innings in the second. She gave up just one run on the day and walked only one to improve to 8-5 on the year with a 3.24 ERA.
Pitching Progress: Junior
Cyanne Fernandez now sports a 2.08 ERA to go with a 5-3 record. She has five complete games, has given up just 55 hits in 67.1 innings of work and has walked just 16 batters.
Danielle Wilson is 5-8 on the season and
Billi Derleth is 3-3.
Hitting Headlines: The Vulcans are hitting .287 as a team, led by shortstop
Mari Kawano at .352. She is second on the team in runs scored with 27 and leads the club in stolen bases with 14.
Danielle Pulido raised her average to .347 over the weekend and is second on the squad in doubles (7), home runs (5) and RBI (28). Freshman
Kristen Ishii is hitting .333 with seven doubles and seven stolen bags.
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 (11) and leads in walks (34). She is third in slugging percentage (.741), fourth in on-base percentage (.503), sixth in runs scored (35), and eighth in RBI (36). She is hitting .350 on the season.
Type it in Ink: Four players have started every game thus far (40) for the Vulcans—
Bailey Gaspar,
Maria Steadmon,
Kristen Ishii and
Brinell Kaleikini.
Seasider Story: BYU-Hawaii is heading down the home stretch of their season and also of their athletic history. This weekend's games will be the final in history between the two schools as the Seasiders are dropping their athletic program at the close of the year. Against the Vulcans, BYU-H will be looking to snap a seven-game losing streak, suffering losses most recently to Hawai`i Pacific and California Baptist. They are 10-24 on the season and 7-15 in the PacWest. Lizabelle Talataina leads the squad with a .444 average, and she also paces the team with 11 doubles, four home runs and 22 RBI. The Vulcans have won the last eight games played between the two schools,
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 597-364, and his all-time collegiate record is 734-469-3.
PacWest Progress: California Baptist, ranked No. 17 nationally, remains on top of the latest Pacific West Conference standings, through 4/18.
Team PWC Overall
California Baptist 25-3 35-8
Dixie State 19-7 34-11
Azusa Pacific 18-8 27-17
Concordia 17-9 31-14-2
Academy of Art 14-12 22-22
Dominican 15-13 18-26
Hawai`i Pacific 13-13 24-18
Hawai`i Hilo 12-12 21-19
BYU-Hawaii 7-15 10-24
Notre Dame de Namur 8-18 8-30
Chaminade 3-21 6-34
Holy Names 3-23 5-34
