HILO, Hawai`i—The two games were as different as night is to day, but the end result was the same as the UH Hilo Vulcans swept a non-conference doubleheader from visiting Saint Martin's on Monday night at Wong Stadium.

The Vulcans won a wild first game 17-16, and then took a much more efficient nightcap, 5-0, thanks to shutout work by Travis Burleson. The wins were the second and third in a row for UH Hilo, who is now 3-4. The Saints dropped to 0-3 on the season. The two teams will wrap up the four-game set on Tuesday night with a 6 p.m. single contest.

The home team pounded out 15 hits in the first game and then held on for dear life as the Saints scored five runs in the top of the ninth to close to within one. In the second game, UHH freshman Burleson kept the Saints off the scoreboard with seven innings of dominating work to pick up his first collegiate win in very impressive fashion.

The first game featured 33 runs, 28 hits and eight total errors.  The Vulcans had crooked numbers in five of the innings, including four-spots in the first, third and fourth innings.
Still, it took John Kea coming out of the bullpen in the top of the ninth to get the final out, a strikeout to notch the save, his second of the season.  Six different pitchers toed the rubber for UH Hilo, with the win going to Deric Valoroso (scorer's decision) as the most effective pitcher in relief with one scoreless inning.

The game took nearly four hours to complete. Kila Zuttermeister led UH Hilo with four hits in five trips to the plate and three RBI. He also had a double. RJ Romo and Mana Manago had three hits apiece and each drove in a pair of runs. Romo had a home run. Kyle Yamada rapped out two hits and drove in three runs from his lead-off spot.

St. Martin's had 13 hits, including three by Colton Peha, who had a home run. In a game that was the opposite of Sunday night's two hour, 25 minute game, Monday's first game featured 13 total walks and seven hit batters.

In the second game, Burleson put zeros on the board to pick-up the seven-inning shutout.

He got the run support that he would need in the second inning via Micah Carter's first career home run, a bomb over the left field fence. Phillip Steering followed that up in the third with a crush of his own in virtually the same spot, a two-run bomb. That was Steering's first home run of the year, breaking out of an early season slump. He would also double in his next at-bat and drive in a run with a single in the fourth to make the score 5-0, and he hit a single in the sixth to finish 4-for-4.

Burleson, who was a hard-luck loser last week against Augustana, giving up just one earned run in five innings of work, was spot on tonight. The Garden Grove, Calif. native worked fast and effective, allowing just three hits in seven innings, with two walks and eight strikeouts. He threw a total of 72 pitches.

Chris Aubort joined Steering in double figure hit totals with a pair of base knocks.

The three consecutive wins are the first for the Vulcans since the end of the 2015 season.