TURLOCK, Calif.—Hawai`i Hilo exploded for six runs in the fifth inning of a tie game to blow past Cal State Monterey Bay, 9-2 on Sunday night at the Tournament of Champions, hosted by Stanislaus State.

The Vulcans leave the tournament with a 3-2 mark and an 18-10 overall record. Cal State Monterey Bay, the 2017 CCAA championship and 2018 pre-season favorite, is 16-17 on the year.

The Vulcans now return to Pacific West Conference play, where they are 6-4, with games in the bay area against Holy Names (Tuesday-Wednesday) and Dominican (Friday).

The Vulcans laced seven hits in that fateful fifth, all of them singles, to put the game out of reach.

Earlier, they had been close to blowing up, loading the bases in the first inning and putting runners on second and third in the second---with nothing to show for it. Finally in the third, Bailey Gaspar walked and Isabelle Mejia followed up with her seventh home run of the year to put the Vulcans on top, 2-0.

The Otters tied the game in the fifth with a couple runs via a pair of hits and a Vulcan error. But other than that trouble, Vulcan starter Leah Gonzales kept CSUMB off the board. She struck out the side in the second and mostly stymied the Otters the rest of the way.

She received ample amounts of run support in the fifth. The Vulcans had seven hits by Gaspar, Kiarra Lincoln, Mejia, Brinell Kaleikini, Lauren Flores, Maria Steadmon and Mari Kawano to make the count, 8-2. They would add another run in the sixth on a Steadmon sacrifice fly.

Gonzales would finish things from there. After pitching four innings earlier today without giving up a run, she went seven in the late game for the win, improving to 2-2 on the season. She gave up six hits, one earned run and struck out five.

Offensively, Kawano and Flores led the Vulcans with three hits, while Lincoln, and Mejia had two hits each. Gaspar, not getting much to look at, walked three times. The senior third baseman was named to the all-tournament team. In six innings the Vulcans had 13 hits.