Photo courtesy of Joseph Polleot.

AZUSA, Calif.--The UH Hilo baseball team opened up their final regular season series against No. 21 Azusa Pacific with a 8-6 win at the Cougar Baseball Complex.  
 
UHH (27-16, 15-14 PacWest) had a strong team performance against APU (29-14, 18-7 PacWest) where they out-hit them 13-9.
 
The Vulcans scored first. Lucas Sakay smacked a one-out double and advanced to third off a frozen rope to right field by Joseph Gallagher. Jaryn Kanbara then produced a clutch single to score the first run (1-0).
 
Azusa Pacific leveled out the field with a game-tying homer by their first batter (1-1). Vulcans' starter, Kyle Alcorn, recovered on the mound producing the next three outs.
 
UH Hilo scored next in the third off of five hits. Gallagher knocked in Casey Yamauchi who singled to get the inning going (2-1). Kanbara and Ryan Cho followed Gallagher with back-to-back singles. With bases loaded, Chris Aubort cleared the bases with a single to center (4-1).
 
APU answered back in the fourth with two runs off of two hits making it a one-run ballgame (4-3).
 
The Vulcans extended their lead in the fifth courtesy of a long ball by  Gallagher which was his sixth of the season (5-3). 
 
On defense, Alcorn held down UHH's lead with two k's and a flyout (5-3). 
 
UH Hilo continued to add to their lead with one run in the sixth and two in the seventh which would turn out to be necessary insurance runs in their 8-6 victory.
 
Alcorn received the win which bumped him to a 500 winning percentage on the hill (3-3). Aaron Davies threw two innings in relief where he allowed no hits and one run to score. John Kea closed the game, receiving his 12th save of the season.
 
The Vulcans are playing the second part of their Wednesday doubleheader, NOW.
 
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