(photo courtesy of Kelsey Walling and the Hawaii Tribune-Herald)

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.--The UH Hilo softball team will play their first mainland team in 14 months with a lot on the line this week at the PacWest Conference AQ Pod Series at Penguin Field in San Rafael, Calif.

The Vulcans will take on SoCal Pod winner Concordia and NorCal Pod winner/host Dominican on Wednesday and Thursday, two games each. The team with the best record after the two days will be declared the PacWest automatic qualifier into the NCAA West Region tournament to be hosted by Concordia in Irvine, Calif., May 19-21. 

WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE (all times Pacific)
11 am, UH Hilo vs. Concordia
1 pm, UH Hilo vs. Dominican
3 pm, Dominican vs. Concordia.
THURSDAY SCHEDULE
11 am UH Hilo vs. Concordia 
1 pm Concordia vs. Dominican 
3 pm UH HIlo vs. Dominican.
*All games played at Penguin Field on the campus of Dominican University.

FANS IN THE HOUSE: Each team will be allotted 40 fans in attendance in a specifically marked off area in the outfield. All fans have to be pre-registered through their respective softball programs. For more information, email your program's head coach.

AUDIO AND LIVE STATS: There will be no video stream available, due to internet issues at the field. But you can follow along via Live Stats, and a radio/audio broadcast will be available as well. Both links are on the Vulcan website softball schedule page. For UH Hilo games, Russ Blunck will serve as the play-by-play broadcaster (same as Vulcan home games on video stream).

REGIONAL UPDATE: In last week's NCAA West Region rankings, the Vulcans listed fifth of eight teams. Six teams will qualify for the tournament, including the champion of the PacWest and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, leaving four at-large berths (the CCAA is not participating this season). This PacWest AQ Pod Series winner will determine the PacWest representative, while the GNAC determined their representative at their confernece tournament last weekend with Western Washington winning. The final six will be announced on the NCAA Selection Show this coming Sunday night. Last week's rankings looked like this. (1) Concordia (26-11), (2) Biola (19-13), (3) Northwest Nazarene (30-12), (4) Western Washington (23-12), (5) Hawai`i Hilo (16-8), (6) Central Washington (17-14), (7) Dominican (16-16), (8) Chaminade (12-12). 

LEAH'S LINE LEADS TO AWARD: Vulcan pitcher Leah Gonzales had a great Senior Weekend, winning two games in the pitching circle and earning the PacWest Pitcher of the Week honor today. Gonzales earned two wins against Hawai`i Pacific last week throwing 11 innings with just two earned runs allowed to lead the Vulcans to a pair of victories. Gonzales has a 1.28 ERA this season, which leads all pitchers in the PacWest, and she has a 7-1 record. 

PITCHING PROGNOSIS: Leah Gonzales paces the Vulcans in the pitching circle, with the above mentioned 7-1 records and 1.2 ERA. She has pitched 55 innings and has given up 45 hits and fanned 31. Opponents are hitting .231 against her. Senior Valerie Alvarado is 4-3 with a 2.50 ERA and freshman Sara Bhatt is 5-2 with a 2.57 ERA. 

HITTING HEADLINES: Vulcan rightfielder Angel Prewitt has been on a tear recently and has driven her average up to a team-leading .400 on the season. She had seven RBI in the three games last weekend. She is hitting .545 in her last nine games...Catcher Markie Okamoto is batting .372 with 15 RBI, second on the team...Shortstop Kiarra Lincoln is hitting .357 with a team best 23 runs scored and ten doubles...Second baseman Darian Obara is also hitting .357 and has scored 18 times...Skylar Thomas is batting .333, and Vevisi Liilii is at .318 with eight doubles and a team-best 21 RBI...Third baseman Chloe Domingo is just under .300 at .292 with 14 RBI.

GLOVE WORK: The Vulcans have turned nine double plays this season, one of the top marks in NCAA Division II. Their team fielding percentage of .980 is the top mark in the PacWest.

REMEMBER WHEN?: The last time the Vulcans played a team from the mainland, it was the No. 8 nationally ranked Eagles of Concordia. The Vulcans took three games from the Eagles in Kona, not knowing at the time that they wouldn't play any more games for over a year because of COVID-19. The last time that they played a game on the mainland was in February, 2020 when they played in the Cactus Classic in Tucson, Arizona.

CONCORDIA CLIPPINGS: The Eagles (26-11) have been ranked in the Top 15 of the national polls all season and currently hold the No. 1 listing in the west region. Many of the character cast is familiar, including highly decorated pitching standout Callie Nunes. The All-American is 9-3 this season with a 1.76 ERA. She has pitching support from Kelsea Sweeney, an Idaho State transfer, who is 7-3 with a 2.00 ERA. The No. 11 Eagles, who have won five games in a row, are led at the plate by Mckinsey Thorpe who is hitting .373 with 22 RBI. Missy Nemeth provides pop with seven home runs and 33 RBI. As a team, the Eagles have 23 home runs in 37 games. The Vulcans won the three games that they played in 2020, but Concordia leads the all-time series, 9-8.

PENGUIN PRESS: Dominican (16-16) won the NorCal Pod by two games over Academy of Art. They were 15-9 in games within their own pod. Peyton Mott leads a potent offense with a .385 batting average, five home runs and 26 RBI. Alyssa Ramirez is hitting .353 with 12 doubles and Vanessa Porto brings .333 to the table with eight stolen bases. Shelby Keltner leads the pitching staff with an 8-8 record and a 3.07 ERA. The Vulcans and Penguins last played in 2019 when UH Hilo won a four-game series in Kona. UHH leads the all-time series between the two teams, 24-4.

SENIOR SEVEN: UH Hilo's seven seniors were honored on Friday at Walter Victor Complex, playing their final contests in Hilo. That group has been a big part of UH Hilo's success over the last 2-4 years and includes pitchers Valeria Alvarado and Leah Gonzales, catcher Markie Okamoto, infielders Kiarra Lincoln and Darian Obara, and outfielders Vevesi Liilii and Kamalei Labasan.