HILO, Hawai`i—On Monday night at Wong Stadium, the Hawai`i Hilo baseball team came just a couple of outs and one major downpour from upsetting the No. 1 team in the nation.

But when it was all said and done, the Azusa Pacific Cougars walked away with 5-3 and 3-2 victories to maintain their large lead in the Pacific West Conference and improve to 29-3 overall and to 19-3 in conference play. The Vulcans fell to 12-18 on the year and to 8-14 in league play.

The No. 1 Cougars scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning of the second game to rally from a 2-0 deficit for a wet and wild 3-2 win. The last half of the game was played in misty conditions, and the final two innings were played in a downpour.
 
The nightcap began as a nifty pitching duel between Dylan Spain and Layne Henderson. They matched zeros on the board for four innings, Spain for five. In the bottom of the fifth, the Vulcans broke through.

Kila Zuttermeister slapped a single between third base and shortstop, only the second  hit of the game off Henderson. On a hit-and-run, Dylan Sugimoto moved him to third. Kyle Yamada then blooped a safety squeeze bunt that landed between the mound and first base, allowing Zuttermeister to scamper home to make it 1-0.

Spain left after the six innings, only 65 pitches in the books. He allowed four hits, walked no Cougars and fanned four in one of his most impressive outings of the season. Brandyn Lee-Lahano picked up where Spain left off, putting the Cougars down in the seventh.  

The Vulcans then added insurance in the bottom half of the inning. With Henderson out of the game, Cougar pitching gave up back-to-back walks to Yamada and Jonathan Segovia, bringing up Phillip Steering, who was hit by a pitch to load the bases. A wild pitch then scored Yamada to make it 2-0.

With a steady rain turning into a driving rain, John Kea took the mound in the eighth, attempting a two-inning save. He gave up an infield single in the eighth, but got out of the inning. After a brief rain delay, he fanned the lead-off batter in the ninth, but then gave up a two-strike single to Osvaldo Tovalin. With the rain coming down harder, Kea hit the next two batters to load the bases.

Deric Valoroso then entered the game for the Vulcans. Grant Gamble greeted him with a single up the middle to score two runs, tying the game at 2-2. A ground ball of the bat of Tim Lichty brought home the go-ahead run before the Vulcans were able to get out of the inning. 

Now ahead for the first time in the game, APU called upon Kale Morton to close things out. The senior left-hander got the first two outs before Segovia singled to keep Vulcan hopes alive. That brought up Steering, who had already been walked intentionally once in the game. Morton pitched to him and Steering lofted the first pitch he saw to right field to end the game.

Zuttermeister had two hits in the game to lead the Vulcans. Kea took the loss (3-2), while reliever Declan Kearney (3-0) got the win. Morton picked up his first save of the year.

In the first game, the Cougars put three runs on the board in the first inning and only needed two hits to take a lead that they would never relinquish. UHH starting pitcher Kyle Alcorn was uncharacteristically wild, walking the lead-off batter and hitting the next Cougar, putting runners on board for the heart of the APU order. Pablo O'Connor and Sean Aspinall took advantage, with O'Connor driving in one Cougar and Aspinall two to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.

The Vulcans would get one run back in the first on Steering's deep shot over the left field fence, his sixth home run of the year, tying his own school record (2017) that he also shares with Keiki Mattson (1997).

Alcorn would settle in a bit after that, allowing only one more run, in the third inning on Steven Garrett's RBI single.  The Vulcans matched that with a run in the third as well. Sugimoto singled and moved to second base when Yamada walked. On a hit and run (both runners moving), Segovia singled home Sugimoto. The Vulcans then loaded the bases, but a double-play ended the inning.

Alcorn lasted until the sixth inning when Nick Estrella led off the inning with a double and Mychael Goudreau brought him in with a single to give the Cougars a 5-2 lead. That meant the end of the night for Alcorn, who only gave up five hits, but walked three and hit four batters.

Cole Nakachi came on in relief and did good work, allowing only two hits over 3.1 innings of work. That left the Vulcans to try and solve Cougar starter Isaiah Carranza and reliever Hayden Jorgenson. Carranza pitched the first five innings and allowed two runs, and Jorgenson pitched four innings in relief.

UHH got one run in the seventh when Mano Manago doubled, moved to third on Zuttermeister's single, and then scored on Edison Sakata's ground out to pull within two runs (5-3). But Jorgenson gave up only one hit in the final two innings for a four-inning save.

Sugimoto had two of UH Hilo's eight hits, while O'Connor and Aspinal had two hits in the game for APU. Carranza improved to 8-0 on the year with the win. Alcorn (2-2) took the loss.

The Vulcans and Cougars will continue their four-game series with a Tuesday doubleheader, first pitch set for 4 pm.