HILO, Hawai`i—UH Hilo senior pitcher
Brandyn Lee-Lehano's supposed role coming into the year was late inning relief.
On Friday at Wong Stadium, he provided relief to the Vulcans with a great starting pitching performance in the opener of the doubleheader, leading the Vulcans to a 3-2 win over Azusa Pacific. The Cougars then bounced back to win the nightcap, 9-1, to even the day and the four game series at 2-2.
UH Hilo is now 4-2 in Pacific West Conference play and 4-8 overall. The three-time defending conference champion Cougars are 10-10 on the year and 5-3 in conference play.
After pitching 1.2 innings in relief on Thursday to get a win, he got called on to start on Friday afternoon. He answered the call with eight innings of bulldog work, allowing only three hits and one earned run. He walked two and fanned five.
John Kea came on in the ninth, as is the usual plan, to retire the side in order to pick up his third save of the year.
Earlier, after spotting the Cougars a 2-0 lead in the third, the Vulcans tied the game in the sixth.
Casey Yamauchi singled, as did
Lucas Sakay.
Jacob Igawa would bunt Yamauchi home and Sakay would score on a wild pitch to tie it at 2-2.
Lee-Lehano continued to do his work, and in the eighth the Vulcans got the go-ahead run they needed.
Rustin Ho singled and then moved to second on a failed pick-off attempt. Sakay followed with a sharp ground ball up the middle that Cougar shortstop Jeffery Castillo made a diving stop on, but Ho just kept on running from second base all the way home for winning run.
Yamauchi had two of UHH's eight hits, while the combo of Lee-Lehano and Kea combined to hold the Cougars to just three hits.
In the second game, sophomore left-hander Brendan Dixon made his first start of the year and it paid off big for the Cougars. He retired the first eight batters he faced. The Vulcans only managed four hits off Dixon in the seven-inning game and didn't score until the sixth. Dixon didn't walk a batter and fanned five before he left the game with one out in the seventh.
His team got him all the runs that he needed in the fourth when they scored three times. Castillo had an RBI-hit and Casey Dykstra drove in two with single. The Vulcans avoided further damage when
Christian DeJesus was able to pick off a runner at third.
After a rain delay, the Cougars piled on more runs in the top of the seventh as the Vulcans finally came unhinged. Helped by two errors, APU would plate six runs on three hits, which included a three-run double by Aaron Roose. They finished with 13 hits.
The Vulcans scored their one run in the game in the bottom of sixth when
Teppei Fukuda doubled and came home on Yamauchi's single.
Next action for the Vulcans will be March 15-16 when they travel to northern California for a four-game series at Academy of Art.
