This Week—Saturday-Sunday (May 6-7) at Hawai`i Pacific (Waipahu), 2 pm (Sat.), 11 am (Sun.) doubleheaders
Hans L'Orange Park--Live Stats available at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/hpusharks
Last Games—Lost four to Dixie State @UHH (17-4, 9-5, 12-4, 4-0)
Record: 8-28 overall, 8-16 Pacific West Conference

Grand Finales: The Vulcans will put a wrap on the 2017 season this coming weekend, in a similar way to how they kicked off the year. They will play Hawai`i Pacific at Hans L'Orange Park, with a conference doubleheader on Saturday that will begin at 2 p.m., followed by a non-conference twinbill on Sunday, at 11 a.m. Way back in late February, the Vulcans and Sharks began the '17 campaign with four games at Wong Stadium.
 
Dixie Damage: PacWest title-contending Dixie State bashed their way to a four-game sweep of the Vulcans in the final home contests of the year for UHH on April 25-26. The top hitting team in the conference scored 42 runs in the four games and lashed 60 hits. They are hitting .351 as a team, 38 points higher than the next closest team in the conference stats. Nonetheless, the Vulcans where in the hunt in all four of the contests. In the first two, they were tied or held a lead at the halfway point of the game before the Trailblazer bats got hot. They were just two runs back through five innings in the third game, and were just a couple of near diving catches away from playing DSU even up in the fourth game pitching duel.

Steering Towards a Batting Title: Junior first baseman Phillip Steering continues to swing one of the hottest bats in the league. He is hitting a PacWest best .420 with a team best 25 runs, nine doubles, six home runs, 22 RBI, and 27 walks. He is tied for the team lead in stolen bases with nine. His .542 on-base percentage is tops in the conference and ranked fourth in NCAA statistics. His .420 batting average is tied for tops in the west region with Cal Poly Pomona's Jared Padlo and is 23^rd nationally.
 
Hitting Headlines: After Steering's .420 average, Jonathan Segovia is next on the Vulcan list at .306. Dylan Sugimoto is tied for the team lead with nine stolen base. Kyle Yamada is second in runs scored with 21 and walks with 23. Jacob Grijalva has swung a hot bat over the last month of the season and is second on the Vulcan list in doubles (8) and RBI (21).

Senior Night: Seven Vulcans were honored after the final home games with Dixie State, including Kamalu Kamoku, who pitched a complete seven-inning game. The senior with the largest family following (25+?) scattered eight hits in a losing cause and allowed four earned runs, which is solid against Dixie State—and he was two near-diving catches away from getting out of a three-run third inning. Others honored were Mike Suguro, Cole Nagamine, Jacob Grijalva, Eric Vega, Aalona Amimoto, and BJ Freitas.

Shark Sentences: Hawai`i Pacific is playing good baseball at the end of the year, having split a four-game series with Fresno Pacific, and winning and tying a game versus Dixie State. Their 2-1 win versus the Trailblazers came courtesy of left-hander Matthew Gunter, who struck out 10 batters in a complete nine-inning game. Gunter, who threw a seven-inning no-hitter at the Vulcans in February, is 6-4 on the season with a 2.33 ERA. He has given up just 55 hits in 77.1 innings of work. The Sharks are hitting .255 as a team and are 17-28-1 on the season and 7-26-1 in PacWest play. But they are tough at home, 14-11-1 on the year at Hans L'Orange Park. HPU won three of the four games versus the Vulcans earlier this season. The Sharks won six of the eight games played in 2016, and they lead the all-time series, 157-107-1.

PacWest Progress: Dixie State and Azusa Pacific are in a virtual tie for first place in the PacWest Standings.
Team                                                     PWC      Overall
Azusa Pacific                                          25-7         38-8
Dixie State                                             24-7-1       35-10-1
California Baptist                                   22-10        31-15
Point Loma                                            19-13        28-17
Concordia                                              17-15        21-25
Fresno Pacific                                        16-16       19-22
Academy of Art                                      16-20       20-30
Holy Names                                           11-25       14-36
Hawaii Hilo                                              8-26         8-28                                                                                               
Hawaii Pacific                                        7-26-1     17-28-1


NCAA West Region Poll: The first official NCAA Division II west region poll was released last week, and it features four Pacific West Conference teams in the top six (top six in the final poll qualify for the regional tournament). (1) Chico State 30-7, (2) Azusa Pacific 34-8, (3) Dixie State 31-10-1, (4) UC San Diego 28-11, (5) California Baptist 31-15, (6) Point Loma 24-16, (7) Stanislaus State 24-14, (8) Cal State Monterey Bay 26-16.

The Coach: Head coach Kallen Miyataki is in his fourth full season as the leader of the Vulcan program, but his history in a UHH uniform goes much deeper than that. He had previous roles as an associate head coach, assistant coach and player for the Vulcans. He was the catcher, captain and team MVP for UH Hilo in 1983, and after a stint at UH Manoa as a grad assistant and assistant coach, he came back to Hilo for a 14-year run as an assistant (1988-2001). He was the associate head coach for three years (2004-06) before taking over the controls of the program in the fall of 2014.