SAN RAFAEL, California – It was a tale of two games but both with the same result as Hawai'i Hilo Softball dropped a doubleheader to Dominican, 5-4 and 6-1, Friday afternoon in Pacific West Conference play at Penguin Field.
Dominican managed to use the long ball with three home runs before getting a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the eighth to steal the victory. In Game 2, the Penguins were aided by a pair of tough luck defensive errors by the Vulcans and scored runs on a squeeze bunt followed by four RBI singles — five of the six runs were unearned.
Mariah Antoque also partook in the opening-game mountain ball festivities, smacking a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to give the Vulcans a brief two-run lead.
Rayna White finished with four total hits with a triple and an RBI and is now batting .666 in three games batting out of the No. 9 spot.
Hawai'i Hilo moved to 11-9 in the PacWest (17-16 overall) as Dominican moved to a 11-7 conference record (20-14 overall).
At roughly just about the midway point of the season, there's small margin for error down the final stretch as teams battle it out for only four spots in the PacWest Championships postseason tournament set for April 30 - May 2 in Irvine, California. Vulcans are currently one of just six teams with an above .500 record in conference play, but sitting ahead are Dominican, Azusa Pacific (10-6), Biola (15-2) and Concordia (13-1). Jessup (10-5) is also ahead but is ineligible for postseason play as it is still in the NAIA-NCAA transition phase (along with Vanguard and Menlo).
UP NEXT: Saturday, March 22 (9 AM / NOON PT) vs Dominican (San Rafael, California / Penguin Field)
