HILO, Hawaii--With their top two starting pitchers sidelined, UH Hilo had to go deep into the well on a Saturday afternoon at Hall Stadium, and it couldn't have turned out much better. 

With Kyle Alcorn and Cameron Scudder scratched from their normal 1-2 starting pitching slots, Aaron Davies and Christian Sadler stepped up big to help led the Vulcans to 6-3 and 2-1 victories. UH Hilo improved to 11-5 with the wins and HPU fell to 2-15. 

Sadler pitched seven no-hit innings before giving up a home run in the eighth, and Casey Yamauchi drove in the winning run in the bottom half of the inning. 

The Vulcans also got terrific relief work in the first game. Davies started and pitched four effective innings, giving up only one run while fanning four. Ty Honda came out of the bullpen to pitch two nearly perfect relief innings to get the win (1-0) and Brandyn Lee-Lehano was lights out over the final three stanzas, setting down six Sharks via strikeouts while allowing only one hit with no walks. 

UH Hilo had 10 hits in the first game, three by Trey Yukumoto and two each by Yamauchi and Chris Aubort. Yukumoto had three RBI in the game. UHH scored two runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth to take a 5-3 lead. They added one more in the sixth and let Honda and Lee-Lehano do the rest. DJ Stephens and Noah Blythe had two hits each for the Sharks.

The opener took three and a half hours, but the nightcap flew by. Nico Gomez and Sadler matched up in a nifty pitching duel through seven innings of a schedule seven inning contest. Sadler didn't allow any Sharks to base, except two whom he issued free passes. Meanwhile, Gomez was almost as good, allowing only two scratch hits through that same amount of play.

But in the eighth, HPU slugger Joesph Gallagher launced a solo home run on a 3-2 count to put the Sharks up 1-0 and bust up the no-hitter. Sadler would get out of the inning, but now he would need offensive help from his teammates or he would be saddled with a 1-hit loss.

He got that help.

It started with a Shark error to lead off the inning, followed by a Rustin Ho single. Yukomoto followed with a bunt single that coupled with an error brought home a run to tie it at 1-1. One batter later, Yamauchi singled home the game winner to give the Sadler the win he deserved. 

Ho and Yukomoto both had two hits for the Vulcans, who had five total in the game. Sadler's final line read 8 IP, 1 hit, two walks and five strikeouts. He threw 109 pitches. Gomez was the hard luck loser without allowing an earned run. He gave up only two hits, one walk and struck out five. 

The two teams will face off again on Sunday, with first pitch set for 11 am.