SAN RAFAEL, California – Hawai'i Hilo Softball made its debut in Year 2 of the Pacific West Conference Championship postseason tournament, falling to second-seeded Azusa Pacific, 4-2, in Wednesday afternoon's opening round at Dominican University's Penguin Field.
The four-team tournament is double elimination as four will be the magic number of wins needed to climb up the hill toward capturing the 2024 conference title.
"Very rough first inning. Too many errors committed and unfortunately weren't able to come back, but again, we just got to put things together for tomorrow," Vulcans third-year head coach Aisha Sueda said. "Come back stronger and hope we're on top."
After the Vulcans went three-up-three down in the opening frame against APU, the Cougars managed to string together four hits for four runs for the early lead.
The Vulcans got a run back in the top of the second as Kanoe Piltz continued her hot hitting after battling through six fouled pitches to drop a RBI hit over the first baseman's head to score Victoria Macias, who knocked a lead-off double to right field. Piltz has powered 11 of her 26 total hits in the last eight contests.
Lexie Tilton helped add another run with a one-out double to left field in the top of the sixth. After moving over on a groundout, the left fielder raced home on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to two runs.
Hawai'i Hilo batters were limited to just four hits while striking out nine times against APU pitcher Katie Korstrom, who was also responsible for driving in two of the Cougars' runs with a base hit up the middle in the first inning.
Vulcans starting pitcher Chloe Sales was chased for Tehani Seto, who tossed 5.2 scoreless innings.
Starting catcher Chenoa Cainglit was ejected in the first inning after initiating more than the one team-conference-per-inning limit.
UP NEXT
Hawai'i Hilo moved to a 25-16 record while Azusa Pacific moved to 29-17 overall.
The Vulcans face fourth seed Biola Thursday afternoon at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. PT) in an elimination game. The winner will play back-to-back and face the loser of the morning matchup between top seed Concordia University Irvine and second seed Azusa Pacific.
Championship game series is set for Friday starting at 9 a.m. (noon PT).
