AZUSA. California – With a little added dramatics, the Hawai'i Hilo Softball team opened its road trip with a twinbill sweep of Azusa Pacific, 4-0 and 7-5 (10 innings), Tuesday evening in Pacific West Conference action at the Cougar Softball Complex.

Chloe Sales tossed a three-hit shutout for the opening-game victory and Lexie Tilton later provided late-game heroics with an RBI triple in the top of the 10th inning of Game 2.

Jayda Favela and Rayna White each tallied four total hits on the evening, bringing the former's in-conference batting average to .467 while the latter's overall team-leading average moved to .389.

The Vulcans have now made it six victories out of the last seven contests against the Cougars.

GAME 1: HAWAI'I HILO 4 - AZUSA PACIFIC 0

• Chloe Sales went the distance for her first win in the pitching circle as a Vulcan, allowing just three hits in the shutout.
• Hawai'i Hilo dished out just six hits with Jayda Favela tallying up half of them in batting 3 for 4 and scoring each time she got on base in addition to recording one assist and five putouts at shortstop.
• The Vulcans plated runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings, taking advantage of pitching miscues and a defensive error at the end. Only one of the Vulcans' four runs were marked as earned.
• Rayna White went 2 for 3 at the plate, bringing in the game-winning run on an RBI base hit in the third inning. The right fielder also kept the rally going in the fifth with a consecutive single and executed to move a runner over in the top of the seventh with a sacrifice bunt.
• APU pitcher Katie Korstrom managed to total nine strikeouts in the loss.

GAME 2: HAWAI'I HILO 7 - AZUSA PACIFIC 5 (10 INNINGS)

• The Vulcans relinquished a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh and held on to keep the game intact to force extra innings and extra dramatics. APU tallied half of its 12 total hits through the first six innings of play and managed to bring the bats alive to rack up five hits in the final frame — two of them going over the outfield fence to account for four runners across the plate.
• The score remained tied until the top of the 10th inning — with help of the international tie-breaker rule that places a runner on second base to start the inning — as Lexie Tilton slammed a deep shot to the center-field fence for an RBI triple. Victoria Macias followed up with a sacrifice fly to right field to give the Vulcans a two-run advantage.
• Megan Yorba, who entered the pitching circle in the bottom of the seventh, closed out the final 3.2 innings and put the Cougars down in order in their final chances in the bottom of the 10th.
• Tilton went 3 for 6 at the plate as Rayna White, Macias and Kiani Nakamura each pitched in two hits each. For Nakamura, a double in the fourth inning was her first hit of the season as she followed up with an encore of a two-RBI hit in the top of the seventh.

UP NEXT

Hawai'i Hilo moved to a 10-4 record (5-3 PacWest) while Azusa Pacific moved to 11-7 overall (5-3 PacWest). The Vulcans and Cougars will conclude their series tomorrow with another doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. (4 p.m. Pacific Time).

The Vulcans will continue on against Concordia University Irvine (March 15-16) and Biola (March 18-19) before playing six games as part of the Tournament of Champions, presented by the City of Turlock (March 21-24).

Next home games are March 29-30 against Academy of Art.