HILO, Hawai'i – Twenty nine different Vulcans made an appearance in Hawai'i Hilo Baseball's final home game of the regular season in a truncated 14-2 defeat to HPU in non-conference play Sunday afternoon at Francis Wong Stadium.
The game ended after seven innings via 10-run mercy rule.
Aaron Davies got the start, throwing just one pitch as the Vulcans utilized 10 total pitchers — nine of them departing seniors. James Yamasaki, Ty Honda, Nick Agacki, Kiyo Perry, Eamon Velarde, Cody Hirata, Jake Liberta and Christian Wood each made appearances out of the bullpen with neither going longer than 1.0 inning.
The game was scoreless through two innings until HPU was able to take advantage of Vulcans defensive errors with a handful of base hits to bring runners across the plate. The Sharks did their damage with three runs in the third, four runs in the fourth and six runs in the seventh.
Hawai'i Hilo was held to just five hits as senior JP Tilley's two-run bomb down the right-field line provided the offensive highlight of the day. It was just Tilley's third at-bat of the season.
Boaz Ayers got his first plate appearances of the season, providing another highlight with a first-pitch base knock in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Other seniors for the Vulcans are Alec Yamauchi, Trent Jackson, Blake Tweedt, Gabe Childs, Kein Iwata, Bradyn Yoshida, and Bryce Tweedt. Of this year's 18 senior players, eight of them made use of extended eligibility granted from shortened/canceled seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Hawai'i Hilo moved to 19-30 overall (11-21 Pacific West Conference) while HPU moved to a 26-20 record (15-15 PacWest).
The Vulcans will close the season out on O'ahu with another matchup against UH Manoa, April 30, at Les Murakami Stadium.
University of Hawai'i Alumni Relations will be hosting "Pa'ina at The Les" on The Aloha Deck along the third base line. Event registration is available at HiloAthletics.com/paina. For more information, email contact@uhalumni.org.
