ALAMEDA, Calif.—Dylan Spain and his Hawai`i Hilo Vulcans overcame a rough start to bounce back for a 10-9 baseball win over Holy Names on Friday afternoon at Alameda College.
The victory was the third straight and second in the series for the Vulcans, who are now 17-23 on the year and 13-19 in the Pacific West Conference. Holy Names is now 10-34 overall and 6-28 in the PacWest. The two squads will wrap up the four-game series with a Saturday doubleheader that starts at noon (Pacific time) on the east side of the bay area.
Spain, UH Hilo's starting pitcher, gave up four runs on three hits in the first inning, giving the Hawks a 4-0 lead. But the 6-foot-6 sophomore settled in after that, holding down the home team over the next five innings. He allowed only three hits in the next five innings after an opening stanza that including three HNU hits, a Vulcan error and two Spain wild pitches.
Spain finished with a win on his record, his third of the year (3-6). He allowed six hits, three walks and fanned four.
His teammates helped put him in a position to win. After trailing 4-0, the Vulcans scored three runs in the second and fifth innings to take the lead, and added two more in the sixth to make the count 8-4. In the second inning,
Jonathan Segovia had a two-run single, in the fifth,
RJ Romo jump-started the inning with a double and in the sixth
Phillip Steering singled and Romo brought him home with a base knock.
Spain left after six innings and
Drew Ichikawa entered. The trusty reliever got the first two outs of the inning but the Hawks then rallied to plate a run to pull within two plate crossings (8-6). The visitors then added two more runs in the eighth with help from the Hawks (two errors) to push the lead to 10-6.
The Hawks loaded the bases in the eighth, forcing head coach
Kallen Miyataki to bring in his closer early,
John Kea. A sacrifice fly and a passed ball later, the Hawks were back within two runs (10-8) before Kea got the final out of the inning.
In the ninth, Kea induced two fly outs and a strikeout to apparently end the game, but the runner reached first when the third strike got away. A walk and two singles followed to score one run before Kea got the final out, picking up his eighth save of the year in the process. That total for the redshirt freshman is the second highest total in the PacWest.
The Vulcans had 14 hits in the game, four of them by Romo (4-for-6).
Kila Zuttermeister had three hits in five at-bats, while Segovia added two base raps with two RBI. Steering was 2-for-3 and was walked three times.
Only half of UH Hilo's ten runs were earned, helped by six Hawk errors.
