LA MIRADA, California – Hawai'i Hilo Softball earned its first series victory of the season after sweeping Biola in a doubleheader, 4-2 and 2-1, Tuesday afternoon in Pacific West Conference play at Freedom Field.

The Vulcans split the first two games of the series after charging back for a 6-4 victory in extra innings before falling, 3-1, in Monday's nightcap.

Hawai'i Hilo matched a season-high 12 hits in the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader. All but one of them were just single base hits.

Rayna White added seven hits to her team-leading .375 batting average, ranking No. 5 overall among all PacWest Conference players.

With two-thirds of the conference season finished, Hawai'i Hilo currently sits just outside the bubble at No. 5 (.444) with Concordia (1.000), Chaminade (.833), Azusa Pacific (.700) and Dominican (.556) ahead in order. The top four teams will qualify for the PacWest Conference Championship postseason tournament set for early May in San Rafael, California.

GAME 3: HAWAI'I HILO 4 - BIOLA 2

• Lexie Tilton bookended the scoring for the Vulcans, driving in the first run of the game in the opening frame on an RBI single to left field to bring Jayda Favela home. Victoria Macias drew a walk and Mia Joaquin got beaned with the bases loaded for another RBI score as Makena Nera and Maya Lee Saneishi also batted base hits, the latter of which gave the Vulcans a 3-0 lead.
• Tilton closed the scoring by providing an insurance run in the top of the sixth, following up Saneishi, Favela and White with the fourth single of the frame to make it a 4-2 ballgame.
• Madison Rabe nabbed her team-leading fifth win in the pitching circle in her sixth start of the season, going 4.1 innings with four strikeouts. Rabe allowed two runs in the third inning as Biola managed to string together four hits. Kanoe Piltz once again minimized damage by throwing out a Biola runner on a steal attempt to second base for the third out of the inning.
• Chloe Sales entered in the bottom of the fifth with one out and two runners on and took care of business, putting the first batter down swinging on strike three before inducing a grounder back to herself to retire the side. In the final at-bat for the Eagles, the home team managed to put one runner on with the game-tying run at the plate, but Sales closed out the final two outs with back-to-back strikeouts for the win and the save.

GAME 2: HAWAI'I HILO 1 - BIOLA 3

• Chasing one run with single-digit outs remaining in the game, the Vulcans clumped back-to-back-to back base hits to set up a wild 11-pitch at-bat by pinch hitter Chenoa Cainglit, who after seven fouled-off swings, drew a bases-loaded hit batsman for the game-tying RBI. Saneishi followed with a pop-up down the left-field line as Biola's Makayla Jordan made a diving catch, allowing Piltz to score on the sacrifice fly for the game-winning run.
• The Eagles threatened in the bottom of the seventh with consecutive base hits. The second out, a fly out to right field, moved the lead runner over to put the game-tying run 60 feet away, but Megan Yorba used just four pitches to freeze Biola batter Abie Nowak looking at strike three to end the game.
• Yorba entered the game in the second inning and minimized damage to get out of a no-out bases-loaded jam by putting down three batters in order. Yorba threw 6.0 shutout innings for her second win of the season.

UP NEXT

Hawai'i Hilo moved to a 13-11 record (8-10 PacWest) while Biola moved to 3-9 in conference (8-13 overall).

The Vulcans will wrap up their road trip with six contests as part of the Tournament of Champions, presented by the City of Turlock hosted by Stanislaus State. Hawai'i Hilo will play No. 19 Cal State San Marcos (March 21), Cal State East Bay (March 22), Chico State (March 22), Sonoma State (March 23), Stanislaus State (March 23) and Cal Poly Humboldt (March 24).

Next home games are set for March 29-30 against Academy of Art at the Vulcan Softball Field.