HILO, Hawai`i--Welcome back, Jonathan Segovia.

Playing in just his second game after coming back from an early season injury, the senior outfielder laced a game-winning single to right field in the bottom of the tenth inning to give Hawai`i Hilo a 6-5 series-opening win over Point Loma on Thursday night at Wong Stadium.

The Vulcans had just six hits in the game, two of them by Segovia, but it was just enough to slip past the Sea Lions to improve to 6-7 on the season and to 2-3 in the Pacific West Conference. Point Loma fell to 9-9 on the year and to 5-4 in the PacWest.

The Sea Lions had 12 hits in the game but they also committed five errors to help the Vulcan cause.

Point Loma got off to a strong and steady start, scoring one run each in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The Sea Lions had a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth, thanks in part to strong pitching from freshman Garrett Irvin. The Vulcans picked up a run in the sixth after Segovia singled and later came home on a RJ Romo single to make it 5-3. UH Hilo added another run in the seventh, the third unearned run of the night, to crawl to within one digit at 5-4. 

Irvin left the game, and UHH tied things up in the eighth after Dylan Sugimoto walked, moved around the bases on a sacrifice and a single by Phillip Steering, and then scored on a wild pitch. Tied at 5-5, the Vulcans worked out of a jam in in the ninth, and extra innings beckoned. 

John Kea, who had put out a mini fire in the ninth, allowed just one walk in the tenth, giving the Vulcans another chance to walk off with a win. With one out, Sugimoto worked a walk and moved to second base on a wild pitch. Enter pitcher Robert Ortiz III, but Segovia greeted the reliever with the game-winning hit to right, sending the Vulcans dugout sprinting towards and tackling Segovia down the first base line.

Kea picked up the win (1-1), the first collegiate victory for the red-shirt freshman. UH Hilo also received 2.1 strong relief innings from Drew Ichikawa, who gave up a hit, walked one batter and struck out two. For Point Loma, Irvin gave up just one earned run in seven innings of work, four hits and he struck out seven.

Darian Sylvester had three of PLNU's 12 hits and Tyler Flores hit is seventh home run of the season. John Balliet and Nico Anderson had two hits each for the Sea Lions.

The two teams will square off again on Friday in game two of the four-game series. Start time at Wong Stadium is 6 pm