HONOLULU, Hawai'i – It was a mix of emotions on the ends of the spectrum after Hawai'i Hilo Baseball split a twinbill with Chaminade, first a 6-5 walk-off loss followed by a 14-0 beatdown, Friday afternoon in Pacific West Conference action at UH Manoa's Les Murakami Stadium.

The Vulcans had nearly two weeks off since ending their road trip in Southern California before starting up the final stretch of the season.

The two teams had already previously met five times for non-conference play earlier this season as Hawai'i Hilo still holds a slight edge at 4-3.

Hawai'i Hilo still has a shot at making the four-team conference postseason but will need to pretty much go perfect in its six remaining PacWest contests.

GAME 1: HAWAI'I HILO 5 - CHAMINADE 6

• Chaminade walked off with the victory on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Vulcans reliever Jake Liberta entered with a runner on second base and one out in the inning. Liberta got Cato Kleinman to go down swinging on strike three before intentionally walking Aydan Lobetos, who had gone 3 for 4 at the plate. However, a passed ball moved runners over before a full-count wild-pitch walk brought pinch runner Ace Perry home for the win.
• Hawai'i Hilo got the scoring going early with back-to-back singles to start the game. A beaned batter loaded the bases to set up an RBI groundout from Alec Yamauchi and a two-RBI base hit by Mark Fedro for a 3-0 lead.
• A handful of free passes to first base aided the Silverswords to tying the score with runs in the first and second innings, but the Vulcans jumped back ahead in the fourth with a safety squeeze bunt executed by Vance Oshiro followed by a wild throw to left field on Bradyn Yoshida's successful steal of third base, bringing in another run for the 5-3 advantage.
• Chaminade again plated runs in the following fifth and sixth innings, this time on a handful of base hits, to even the ballgame.
• Hawai'i Hilo only had one batter reach base from the fifth inning on.
• John Navarro was tagged with the loss after walking the lead-off batter in the final frame of action. James Yamasaki got the start, going 6.0 innings.

GAME 2: HAWAI'I HILO 14 - CHAMINADE 0 (7 INNINGS)

• The Vulcans bashed out 15 total hits with 10 RBI while giving up zero errors defensively and notching 13 strikeouts.
• After plating a run in the opening frame, Hawai'i Hilo added on four runs in the second and then doubled that with eight runs in the fourth, totalling 10 hits alone through those two innings. Cody Min, Arthur Soto, Alec Yamauchi, Bryce Lindberg and Vance Oshiro powered through with RBI knocks.
• Aaron Davies got the start with 4.0 innings of work, striking out six batters and allowing just two hits. Luke Dickson threw two innings with four strikeouts, and Christian Wood closed it out with 1.0 inning and all three outs with a 'K'.

UP NEXT

Hawai'i Hilo moved to 15-25 overall (8-18 PacWest) while Chaminade moved to a 7-19 conference record (14-27 overall). The two teams will meet up again one final time this season with a doubleheader, April 13, at Francis Wong Stadium.

The Vulcans remain on O'ahu and return to Les Murakami Stadium on Sunday to play HPU in a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m.

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

PACWEST HAWAI'I CHALLENGE

Both the Vulcans and Silverswords added two points each in the baseball race for the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge. Chaminade currently leads with four points while Hawai'i Hilo and HPU both have two. The team who finishes with the most points will secure a score of three toward the overall standings.

In an effort to elevate Hawai'i-based rivalries, the PacWest Hawai'i Challenge has awarded the top school in athletics competition among the state's Division II institutions going back to the late 1970s.

Comprising 10 sports that all three schools participate in, points are awarded from head-to-head Pacific West Conference matchups as well as final placements at conference-ending championship events. The team with the highest total gets three points while the second highest gets two and the third-place finisher receives one.