The UH Hilo baseball Season in Review is a part of a series of wrap-ups for the Vulcans' 12 teams that all played in the spring during this bizarre 2021 COVID sports year. Over the next month, we will take a look back at the UH Hilo seasons, that despite being played in a pandemic, were highly successful on many fronts. 

FINAL RECORD: 14-15
PacWest Pod Record: 13-9
Post Season: 1-3 at AQ Pod Series

Baseball Makes Us Happy: One year after having their season barely start and then end due to the pandemic, the Vulcans were more than happy to have a schedule in 2021---albeit a bizarre slate of games. UH Hilo played 29 games on the season, maybe about 20 short of a normal year, but that was 29 more than some thought would be played heading into 2021. 

You Guys Again?: 22 of those 29 games were against the soon-to-be-very familiar Hawaii Pacific Sharks. All teams in the Pacific West Conference played "Pod Only" schedules, meaning northern California teams played northern California teams, southern California teams played southern California teams and the Vulcans and Sharks saw a whole lot of each other. That's a lot of games against the same team. Even in Major League Baseball, division rivals would play no more than 19 games against each other during a 162-game schedule.

How it Started and How it Ended: The Vulcans won 11 of their first 13 games against HPU, dominating the series through the first part of the season. But the Sharks caught fire after that, winning seven of the next eight games before UHH won the regular season finale to secure the Hawaii AQ advancement. When it was all said and done, the Vulcans won the series of games, 13-9.

Near Perfection: Christian Sadler made his first pitching start of the year count in more ways than one. The senior righthander took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a home game against the Sharks on April 17 before a home run ended the dream. Still, Sadler finished the game, a 2-1 win for the Vulcans, allowing just the one hit, two walks and five strikeouts in one of the best pitching performances in school history.

And, the Other Hawai`i: The Vulcans opened their season on Oahu against the University of Hawai`i in a three-game series. Just like in 2020, they gave the Rainbow Warriors a scare in the opener. Last year, the Vulcans had a late lead before their hosts walked off in victory in the last of the ninth. Same thing this spring, UH ended a 2-2 game with a walk-off single (last year it was a homer) to win the series opener. The Rainbow Warriors also won the other two game in the series to send the Vulcans home with an 0-3 record before the start of the contests versus the Sharks. 

AQ Pod Series: By virtue of winning the series against the Sharks, the Vulcans were the Hawaii Pod winner and advanced to play the other two pod champions at Azusa Pacific in May. The Vulcans went 1-3 in southern California, losing twice to the host Cougars and splitting a pair of games with Academy of Art. In their first two losses, they spotted their opponent a big lead before rallying back, but coming up just short---11-7 against APU and 8-5 versus ART. The Vulcans broke through on the second day, this time rallying past the Urban Knights for a 8-7 win. UHH then dropped the final game of the series to Pod champion Azusa, 9-2.

All-PacWest: In many other sports in the shortened 2021 spring seasons, Pod-only all-conference teams were chosen. In baseball, the All-PacWest team was selected from the entire pool of PacWest teams (no pods). Vulcan newcomer and graduate senior Trey Yukumoto was selected Second Team All-PacWest at third base, and senior left-hander Kyle Alcorn was named to the Third Team. Yukumoto hit .330 with 15 runs scored and 14 RBI, while Alcorn was UHH's No. 1 starter and finished 3-2 with a 3.26 ERA.

By the Numbers: Shortstop Casey Yamauchi didn't get any postseason love when he probably should have. He led the Vulcans with a .370 average and also paced the team in runs scored (19), RBI (21) and stolen bases (12 of 13). He also only struck out four times in 125 plate appearances....Bradyn Yoshida also hit over .300 (.315) and fellow outfielder Chris Aubort had nine doubles, three home runs and seven stolen bases....On the mound, Takashi Umino was dependable out of the bullpen with 14 appearances and a 1-0 record. He had an ERA of 3.00, allowing only 15 hits in 18 innings pitched while fanning 19...John Kea had five saves, adding to his career school record mark in that category with 27.

And in the 10th Round, the Atlanta Braves Select...: Former UHH pitcher Dylan Spain was taken in the tenth round of the MLB draft by the Atlanta Braves, the third highest slot that a Vulcan has ever been taken. Spain, who redshirted in 2020 and sat out 2021 to prepare for the draft, was 5-1 with a 3.80 ERA in 2019. After the draft, the Honolulu native reported to Atlanta's training site in Florida to begin his professional career.

To view the updated Vulcan baseball record book, click here to get started. Then scroll back up to "More" to see all the different categories.