HILO, Hawai'i– The UH Hilo baseball team executed against Holy Names, taking the doubleheader sweep at Wong Stadium (5-1 and 10-7).
The Vulcans are rolling on a three-game winning streak, 15-6 overall and 4-4 in the PacWest Conference while the Hawks are 12-11 and 5-5 in the PacWest.
Game One: UHH 5, HNU 1
Conor Meehan started the game on the hill for the Vulcans, throwing four-scoreless innings, efficiently holding his team's two-run lead.
Ty Honda relieved Meehan in the fifth, securing the final two outs to put an end to the inning. Honda left two Hawks' stranded on base, successfully holding UHH's 2-0 lead.
HNU would score a run in the sixth, but UHH would answer back with two. Joseph Gallagher had a two-out double to right, scoring Brett Komatsu and Casey Yamauchi (4-1).
The Vulcans would push one more run across in the eighth inning. Komatsu came home off a sacrifice fly by Gallagher (5-1).
Honda collected the first-game win in three innings of work. The redshirt freshman only allowed one run with no hits and retired two Hawks.
Takashi Umino recorded his first save of the season, throwing the final two innings where he fanned two batters.
Game Two: UHH 10, HNU 7
The second game was hard fought with both teams taking a couple turns with the lead.
UHH jumped with the first lead when Kekaulike Kalua singled to score Gallagher (1-0).
Holy Names fired back in the fourth. The Hawks capitalized off two Vulcan errors, scoring two runs and taking their first lead (3-2).
UH Hilo answered back with two runs in the fifth. A Lucas Sakay single scored Komatsu and a sacrifice bunt by Kalua pushed across Yamauchi, stealing back the lead (4-3).
The Hawks were not about to give up until the last pitch, taking the lead back in the eighth. HNU scored three runs with three hits (7-6), but failed to defend their lead losing hold of the ballgame in the bottom of the eighth. Two sacrifice flies and a hit batter with bases loaded explained the Vulcans' eighth-inning run damage and the game's final score of 10-7.
Five UHH hurlers saw time on the mound. Barron Holtz (3 IP), Eamon Velarde (3.1 IP), Jacob Liberta (1.1 IP), Cody Hirata (.1 IP), and John Kea (1 IP).
Hirata was awarded the win and Kea received the save in the second part of the day's doubleheader. Kea picked up his fifth save of the season, throwing a 1-2-3 inning to wrap up the top of the ninth.
The Vulcans rematch the Hawks tomorrow, Mar. 10 at 3:30 and 7pm HST. The first game will be nine innings while the second will be a seven-inning game.
