Vulcans use pitching and long ball for twinbill wins

BELMONT, Calif.—Hawai`i Hilo's Leah Gonzales pitched a first-game gem and her teammates hit three home runs in the fifth inning of the second game to key a softball doubleheader sweep of Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday at Notre Dame High School, 6-1 and 9-4.

The victories move UH Hilo's record to 27-13 overall and 15-7 in the Pacific West Conference. The Vulcans remain in fifth place, but are now only one game out of first place in the loss column in what is becoming a very tight PacWest race.

The Argonauts are now 11-38 on the year and 7-21 in conference play. The two teams will play again tomorrow to wrap up the four-game series.

In the first game, Gonzales went the distance, allowing five hits, one walk, one earned run and she fanned four. She improved to 5-2 on the season, but more importantly set the table for the Vulcan offense.

Her team got on the board first when Isabelle Mejia singled to drive in a run in the opening inning, and Mari Kawano did the same in the second to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. The Argonauts would score once in the second on one hit to make it a 2-1 game.

UH Hilo broke things open in the sixth inning when Mejia doubled home a run and Kacie Freudenberger brought home two with a base hit. That left Gonzales to continue to hold NDNU at bay, and she did, giving up only one hit in the final two innings.

Mejia, Kiarra Lincoln, Kawano and Freudenberger all had two hits in the game for the Vulcan offense.

In the second contest, the Vulcans went long ball in the fifth inning to bust open a close game.

There was no score through the first two innings. The Vulcans then put two runs on the board in the third when Lincoln doubled and came around to score and Bailey Gaspar dropped down a rare bunt to bring home another.

The Argonauts got two back in the bottom half of the inning to tie it, but UHH answered in the fourth on a Skyler Thomas sacrifice fly and a Darian Obara double (4-2).

If NDNU held out any hope to coming back, UH Hilo squashed that in the fifth. Gaspar belted a two-run homer, Brinell Kaleikini followed a batter later with her own two-run shot, and Fruedenberger hit a third round-tripper in UHH's next at-bat to push the lead to 9-2.

Mejia got the win in the pitcher's circle. She scattered ten hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out four to improve to 5-5 on the year. Kaleikini went 4-for-4 to lead the offense, while Kawano, Lincoln, Obara and Fruedenberger had two base knocks each.

The two teams will play again at noon on Sunday, before UH Hilo takes on Academy of Art in a critical match-up on Tuesday.