HILO, Hawai`i—What began as a dream come true for the Hawai`i Hilo Vulcans on Friday night at Wong Stadium unraveled into a nightmare during a 9-6 Biola win in 12 innings.
UH Hilo was cruising behind the shutout pitching of
Kyle Alcorn, leading 4-0, heading towards a quick evening of work in that looked to be in the books in about two-and-a-half hours. An hour and a half later, it was the Eagles who snuck away with the victory to even up the four-game series at one game apiece.
UH Hilo is now 2-2 in Pacific West Conference play and 4-7 overall. Biola evened their PacWest record at 1-1 and they are 5-6 on the year. The two teams will wrap up the series on Saturday with a doubleheader that starts at 3 pm.
Alcorn gave up just three hits and was positioned for the win, allowing no runs and seemed to get stronger as the game went on. He walked three, but struck out six batters—including three in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth as his team built a 4-0 lead.
Earlier, the Vulcans scored three runs in the third. Two walks led off the inning, and
Kyle Yamada drilled a ground-rule double down the rightfield line to make it 1-0.
Casey Yamauchi followed with an RBI-sacrifice bunt, and another run scored on a throwing error to make it 3-0.
The Vulcans added another run in the fifth when
Mikey Rita got on via a bunt base hit. Yamada followed with a walk and Yamauchi drove in another run to make the count 4-0.
The wheels started to come off from what looked like a sure win for the Vulcans in the top of the seventh. With Alcorn retired, a walk, a hit and an error on a foul ball kept the inning alive long enough for Biola's RJ Bates to launch a three-run homer to pull his team to within a run (4-3).
UH added insurance in the eighth when
RJ Romo singled and scampered home on
Kobie Russell's double (5-3). But the game turned for the worse for Vulcan fans in the top of the ninth—with some fans already heading confidently to the exits.
Vulcan closer
John Kea was working on a two-inning save when a single by Joey Magro, a walk and a dribbler in the grass at third base loaded the bases with one out. Robert Anthony Cruz's sacrifice fly pulled the Eagles to within one run (5-4), and Andy Van Antwerp tied the game with a single to left (5-5).
UH Hilo couldn't score in the ninth, and Biola put the pressure on in the tenth when Connor Kostecka led off the inning with a double down the line. Magro hit a sharp single down the rightfield line to score Kostecka, giving the visitors a 6-5 lead.
But the Vulcans answered with a two-out rally in the bottom half. Pinch-hitter
Chris Aubort singled to keep his team alive, and Russell hit a 3-2 pitch to left-center field for a double, scoring Aubort all the way from first (6-6).
Neither team scored in the 11
th. In the 12
th, Kea, making the longest appearance of his Vulcan career, gave up a lead-off single to Kostecka. Two outs later, Kosteca was on third but UHH was one out away from getting out of trouble. But a ground ball turned into an error, giving Biola the go-ahead run and a two batters later Cruz riffled a ball over the centerfielder's head to bring in two more runs (9-6).
Biola reliever Josh Ludeman, who entered the game in the ninth, fanned two Vulcans in the 12
th and got the final out on a pop up to first base. He pitched four innings, gave up one run and fanned four to pick up his first win of the year.
Kea was tagged with the loss (1-1), pitching five innings and giving up three earned runs.
After piecing together only three hits through the first six innings off Alcorn, the Eagles finished with 15 base knocks, including three by Magro. Bates and Cruz drove in three runs each.
The Vulcans had 11 hits, three by Russell and two by Yamauchi. The freshman shortstop also drove in a pair of runs, as did Russell. The redshirt third baseman also had a pair of stolen bases.
