HILO, Hawai`i—UH Hilo lashed out 14 hits to rally for an 8-5 victory in the first game, but defending conference champion Azusa Pacific shut down the Vulcan bats in the nightcap for a 4-0 win and a split of the first two games of the baseball series at Wong Stadium.

The Vulcans are now 3-1 in the Pacific West Conference and 3-7 overall. The Cougars, the three-time defending PacWest champs, are 4-2 in league play and 9-9 on the season. The two squads are scheduled to play games three and four of the series on Friday, beginning at 3 pm.

UH Hilo scored six runs over the final three innings of the first game to rally for the win, but APU's Nick Estrella shut down the Vulcans with a four-hit shutout in the nightcap, and he hit a two-run homer for good measure.

In the first game, which carried over two days, the Vulcans rallied from a 5-2 deficit with three runs in the sixth, two more in the seventh and an insurance run in the eighth. Brandyn Lee-Lehano and John Kea shut the door on the Cougars over the final three stanzas for the victory.

The Cougars had taken a 4-2 lead from Wednesday to Thursday, when the game resumed in the bottom of the fourth. APU would add a run to that margin (5-2) after Griffen Herrera's RBI-double in the top of the sixth.

But the Vulcans rallied back in the bottom half of the inning with run-scoring hits from Chris Aubort and Rustin Ho (double), and the Vulcans would add two more in the seventh with a two-out rally. UHH had four straight singles from John Bicos, Lawson Faria, Ryan Cho and Aubort to take a 7-5 lead.

The Vulcans would add another in the eighth on a Bicos RBI-double to make it 8-5. Meanwhile, Lee-Lehano gave up just one hit in 1.2 innings to pick up the win (1-1), and Kea retired four straight batters to pick up his second save of the season.

Lucas Sakay and Aubort had three hits apiece and Bicos and Faria each had two as a part of UHH's 14-hit attack.

In the second game, the Cougars scored twice in the fifth and twice more in the eighth, and that was all Estrella needed for the 4-0 shutout win.

Aaron Roose ripped a two-run double in the fifth, which were were the first two runs off of Vulcan starter Kyle Alcorn in the game. The Vulcan lefty came out of the game after the fifth, having allowed just one earned run on six hits, three strikeouts and no walks.

Christian Sadler enter the fray for the second straight day and got outs until the eighth, when Estrella helped his own cause with two-run shot to make the tally 4-0. Estrella then survived a single and an error in the bottom of the ninth, retiring the final two batters he faced.

Aubort had two of UHH's four hits off of Estrella. He went 5-for-7 over the two games.