HONOLULU, Oahu--The UH Hilo baseball team's clinch of the Hawai`i Pod of the Pacific West Conference will have to wait another day after Hawai`i Pacific's 5-3 win over the Vulcans on Friday night at Les Murakami Stadium.

Micah Layosa's two-run single in the seventh inning broke open a 3-3 tie and HPU pitchers Brandon Peterson and Gavin Pringle closed the door on the Vulcans the rest of the way from the pitching mound as the Sharks stayed alive to play on Saturday.

The two teams will meet again at noon with a doubleheader scheduled, but if the Vulcans win the first game, the second contest (and Sunday's games) will be scratched. UHH is now 12-12 overall and 12-9 in the PacWest while Hawaii Pacific is 9-16 on the year and 9-12 in conference play. 

The teams are playing for a spot in next week's PacWest AQ Pod Series at Azusa Pacific (May 20-22) to represent the Hawaii Pod.

The Vulcans welcomed the return of catcher Jaryn Kanbara and second baseman Lawson Faria, who had been out with injuries, but they came up just short. Kanbara had two hits, as did Casey Yamauchi.

Vulcan starter Kyle Alcorn took the hill to try and close the series out early and retired the first nine batters that he faced. His team gave him a 2-0 lead in the third inning when Yamauchi singled and Kanbara doubled to set the table for John Bicos' sacrifice fly and Mason Campbell's RBI-single.

Alcorn finally ran into trouble in the HPU fourth, allowing three runs on four hits to give the home team a 3-2 lead. That held until the seventh when the Vulcans scored a run to tie it on Kobie Russell's single and Faria's double.

But the Sharks took over again in the bottom of the seventh, scoring twice courtesy of four hits and a UHH error to grab the lead back at 5-3. When the Vulcans put runners on base in the eighth, Pringle came out of the bullpen to get the final out of that inning and put UHH down 1-2-3 in the ninth for the save.

Peterson pitched 4.2 strong innings in relief to get the win (2-4) and Brandyn Lee-Lehano (3-2) took the loss.