SANTA BARBARA, California – Hawai'i Hilo Baseball was back in action Monday afternoon, falling on the other side of favorable results against Westmont, 11-3 and 10-1, in Pacific West Conference play at the Russ Carr Field.

Vulcans batters struck out a combined 21 times in the doubleheader, going down swinging on 17 of them.

The Warriors are new to the PacWest Conference this season and are in the second year of their three-year transition from the NAIA to the NCAA Division II. Westmont capped last season by claiming the NAIA National Championship.

GAME 1: HAWAI'I HILO 3 - WESTMONT 11

• The defending NAIA National Champs came out to play as Daniel Patterson started the bottom of the first inning with a lead-off homer for the first of his two solo dingers in the game. Consecutive walks followed by a sacrifice fly and two base hits brought in three more runs for the Warriors.
• Chasing a 5-0 lead, the Vulcans got on the scoreboard in the sixth with doubles by Cody Min and Mason Cook to get one across. Kyle Casados later moved runners over on a sacrifice bunt with the added bonus of a throwing error to allow Cook to score. Bryce Tweedt then hit a sacrifice fly to score Bryce Lindberg, who had previously reached base on balls, to make it a 5-3 score.
• Westmont re-extended the lead in the bottom half of the sixth by plating a pair of runs on a bases-loaded wild pitch and a sacrifice fly out.
• Patterson hit his second homer to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Further damage was done by allowing runners to advance on a failed pick-off attempt at second base before coming around to score on a wild pitch. Liam Critchett then managed to hit a two-run homer to close the scoring.
• Westmont pitchers Bryan Peck (6.0 IP) and Joey Rico (3.0 IP) combined for 10 strikeouts.
• Nick Agacki got the start, going 5.0 innings with three strikeouts and just four hits surrendered but gave up seven walks and hit two batters for five runs allowed.

GAME 2: HAWAI'I HILO 1 - WESTMONT 10 (7 INNINGS)

• The Warriors again got started early, this time rallying on two outs with a cluster of hits capped by a two-strike two-RBI triple by Tanner Beltowski. The freshman followed up with a lead-off homer in the third and a single in the fourth, falling a double short of the cycle.
• Tyrus Stephens made his fifth start of the season, going 2.0 innings before making way for Sebastian Garcia's longest outing at 4.0 IP. Both allowed seven hits each.
• Westmont pitcher Ryan Humphreys threw 5.0 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts alone. Relief pitcher Caden Beloian added one more 'K' to match a season high for Vulcans batters (11 strikeouts to Azusa Pacific on March 21).
• Hawai'i Hilo prevented the shutout in its final at-bat, getting a pinch-hit single from Kein Iwata followed by a double from Min, who finished the day with a pair of hits in each game of the doubleheader. Arthur Soto then drove in the lone Vulcans run of the same.

UP NEXT

Hawai'i Hilo moved to 14-22 overall (7-15 PacWest) while Westmont moved to a 12-1-1 conference record (20-7-3 overall). The two teams will meet again Tuesday for another doubleheader at Russ Carr Field.

The Vulcans return to the Big Island, next hosting their Alumni Game on March 30 at Francis Wong Stadium.

Hawai'i Hilo will hop over to O'ahu for doubleheaders against Chaminade (April 5) and HPU (April 7) before its next home games set for April 13 against the Silverswords.

The four-team PacWest Conference Championship postseason tournament will be May 8-10 at Azusa Pacific's Cougar Baseball Complex.