WAIPAHU, Hawai`i—Hawai`i Pacific used one big inning in the first game and another sterling pitching performance by Matthew Gunter in the nightcap to pin a doubleheader baseball loss on Hawai`i Hilo on Saturday, 5-3 and 12-1 at Hans L`Orange Field.
The games were the final Pacific West Conference encounters of the year for both teams, although they will square off again tomorrow in a pair of non-league contests to wrap up the 2017 year.
The Vulcans are now 8-30 on the season and finished 8-28 in the PacWest. The Sharks are 19-28-1 and moved ahead of UHH in the final conference standings at 9-26-1.
In the first game,
Phillip Steering laced an RBI-single in the third inning to tie the game at 1-1, which is where it stayed until the bottom of the fifth. UHH's
Eric Vega had given up one run to this point, working out of a bases loaded jam in the second.
But in the fifth, the Sharks put three runs on the board thanks in part to a two-run triple by Wyatt Hoppie, and in the seventh they added another run to take a 5-1 lead.
The Vulcans would battle back in the eighth after a Steering walk, a
Cole Nagamine hit and a two-run double by
Jacob Grijalva to pull within two runs at 5-3. But the visitors would go down in order in the ninth and the Sharks would salt away the win.
No one had more than one hit for the Vulcans, although Steering was walked three times. UHH had six hits in the game. Vega, pitching in his final game, went the distance fanning eight batters but was tagged with the loss.
In the second game under the lights, UH Hilo saw a familiar but unwelcome sight in the person of Gunter, the left-hander who no-hit them back in the first series of the year at Hilo. The HPU ace gave up a first inning double to Steering, but was pretty much on target after that.
Steering would add base hits in the third and another in the fifth, when UHH scored its one run of the contest. But the Sharks would score five times in the third inning on seven hits, giving Gunter all the run support that he would need. They would pound out 21 hits against four Hilo pitchers.
Steering had three of UH Hilo's four hits, raising his batting average to .432 on the season. Gunter went the full nine innings, allowed four hits, one run, three walks and he struck out eight.
The two teams will meet again on Sunday, with the first game to begin at 11 a.m.
