HILO, Hawai`i—Baseball is a game of superstitions, but it is also a game of metrics, formulas and charts.

The Vulcans may have landed on a formula that works. For the second straight outing, lefthander Kyle Alcorn spun six innings of shutout baseball to set the table for a UH Hilo win on Thursday night at Wong Stadium, 3-1, over visiting Fresno Pacific.

Alcorn stymied the Sunbirds for half a dozen frames, allowing just four hits, three walks and he fanned six. It gives the Vulcans a win in the first contest of a four-game series, which continues on Friday night, also at 6 pm.

UH Hilo is now 5-9 on the season and 3-4 in the Pacific West Conference. Fresno Pacific is now also 5-9 on the year and 2-3 in conference play.

In Alcorn's last outing, he had almost the exact same numbers against Biola. Only difference was that he only allowed three hits (instead of four) and still struck out six. And he didn't get the win (no decision), which he did this time to improve to 2-1.

Brandyn Lee-Lahano came into the game in the seventh and pitched two effective innings (two hits, three strikeouts). John Kea closed things out in the ninth, but not without some adventure first.

The Vulcans got on the board in the first inning thanks in part to singles by RJ Romo and a RBI-liner by Kobie Russell. They added another plate crossing in the third inning after Kyle Yamada singled, Casey Yamauchi singled to deep second base (sending Yamada to third), and Yamada then scored on a wild pitch.

That would be all the scoring for the Vulcans, but it appeared that would be all they would need. Lee-Lahano closed the door for two innings, setting the stage for closer Kea.

But Kea allowed back-to-back doubles to open the ninth, to Christian Collins and Dylan Lewis, who switched places to bring in the first Sunbird run of the game. Kea then buckled down and fanned the next three batters to pick up his third save of the season.

Yamada had two hits and scored twice for UHH, and Dylan Sugimoto had two of the Vulcans' nine hits. Michael Warkentin went 3-for-3 for FPU, and Esteban Lizaola was the unfortunate Sunbird loser on the hill, despite allowing only one earned run and fanning eight in 6.1 innings.

The Vulcans and Sunbirds will continue their four-game series on Friday night with a single contest under the lights at Wong Stadium, 6 p.m.