HILO, Hawai'i – Hawai'i Hilo baseball continued to roll with a twinbill sweep of Northwest Nazarene, 7-5 and 11-3, Friday evening at Francis Wong Stadium to improve to 7-1 on the early season.
The Vulcans racked up double-digit hits in both games led by Casey Yamauchi's combined 5-for-8 outing with four RBI, a triple, a walk and three runs.
After missing all of the opening-weekend series, senior Ryan Cho returned to the starting lineup and provided some offensive production, batting 3 for 4 with a walk in the afternoon game as redshirt sophomore Cody Min fell a triple shy of hitting for the cycle in the night cap.
The Vulcans cycled through 13 pitchers in Friday's two contests, as Jake Liberta notched this third save of the season with Ty Honda (1-0) and Aaron Davies (2-0) each getting wins.
"I think we're surprising ourselves but we're believing in ourselves and I think that's the biggest thing. That's half the battle," 10th-year Hawai'i Hilo head coach Kallen Miyataki said. "Those are the things that we didn't have before and it's slowly starting to materialize and it's a big difference."
GAME 1: NORTHWEST NAZARENE 5, HAWAI'I HILO 7
Every time the Nighthawks scored, the Vulcans answered back before eventually taking over late while capitalizing on some NNU miscues.
Both teams entered the sixth inning with the score tied up at 3-3, but the Nighthawks loaded the bases after drawing three walks before plating a pair of runs on a sacrifice fly and a double to left field.
Bradyn Yoshida led off the bottom frame by reaching on an error before stealing second and safely arriving at third base to beat the throw on a pick-off attempt behind him at second base.
Casey Yamauchi brought him in on a base-knock, and then later came around to score the tying run on a mishandled throw from the NNU shortstop to third base.
Trent Jackson's RBI groundout scored Mason Cook for the game-winning run. Jackson added insurance an inning later with a bases-loaded grounder as Yoshida came across the plate.
GAME 2: NORTHWEST NAZARENE 3, HAWAI'I HILO 11
The Vulcans posted five-run second and sixth innings with 11 total hits split between the two frames.
The second inning was highlighted by Sy Stephen's RBI double, Bradyn Yoshida's two-RBI single and Casey Yamauchi's RBI-triple.
Cody Min capped a four-single sixth inning with a deep three-run drive over the left field fence.
Through the first seven eight games, Aaron Davies is the first Vulcans starter to earn the win, going 4.0 innings with two strikeouts, zero walks and just three hits and two earned runs allowed.
WHAT'S NEXT
Hawai'i Hilo moved to 7-1 overall, 0-0 Pacific West Conference while Northwest Nazarene moved to a 1-7 record (0-0 Great Northwest Athletic Conference).
The Vulcans and Nighthawks will conclude their four-game series Saturday, 3 p.m. at Francis Wong Stadium.
Hawai'i Hilo will then have a week off to prepare for the PacWest Conference season opener against Concordia University Irvine with doubleheaders Feb. 24-25.
