HONOLULU, Hawai'i – Steps 1-2 toward landing a postseason spot were completed Friday afternoon as Hawai'i Hilo Softball took a twinbill sweep of HPU, 15-5 and 11-3 (five innings), at the Mauli Ola Sports Complex at Sand Island Park to open the final weekend of Pacific West Conference play.
The Vulcans, now holding a 21-14 conference record, is one of three teams vying for the final two berths in the fourth-team PacWest Championships postseason tournament set for next week in Irvine, California. Biola (regular season champion) and Concordia already locked up two of the postseason spots. Jessup — sitting at No. 3 in the standings with a 24-12 record — is ineligible for postseason competition as part of its three-year NAIA-NCAA transition, leaving Azusa Pacific, Dominican and Hawai'i Hilo to battle through the final weekend of action.
First steps for the Vulcans is to take care of their own business by closing out the season with a three-game sweep of HPU. The last part requires quite a bit of help as either Azusa Pacific or Dominican will have to lose their final two matchups on Saturday in order for the Vulcans to qualify for the PacWest Conference Tournament. Dominican is playing a rescheduled doubleheader against Menlo — the Penguins won the previous two matchups last month — while APU is completing the tail end of a four-game series with Vanguard — the Cougars dropped both of Friday's contests to the Lions.
In Hawai'i Hilo's two wins on Friday against the Sharks, Victoria Macias drove in seven total RBI on 6-of-8 hitting with two doubles and a triple. Macias now ranks No. 4 in program history with 49 total RBI this season.
Rayna White had the game-winning hit in both games: first a two-RBI triple (fifth of career; tied No. 8 in program history) in the fourth inning of Game 1 before bringing across a run on a sacrifice fly in Game 2 — also in the fourth inning.
The Vulcans totaled 21 hits in Game 1 — tallying up eight of them in a seven-run top of the seventh — the most in a single game since finishing with 24 in a five-inning 23-3 win over Holy Names in March 2017.
Lexie Tilton and Jayda Favela (now with 75 on the season; ranked No. 3 in program for single-season hits) both had five total hits on the afternoon. Favela came across the plate six total times to bring her career total to 128, moving to No. 2 all-time in the Vulcans record books.
Madison Rabe recorded the rare save, entering in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run lead in Game 1 (2.1 scoreless innings), before getting her ninth win of the season with a 5.0-inning complete game.
UP NEXT: Saturday, April 26 (11 AM) vs HPU (Honolulu, Hawai'i / Mauli Ola Sports Complex at Sand Island Park)
PACWEST HAWAI'I CHALLENGE: The results of Friday's baseball and softball games settled the competition between Hawai'i's three Division-II schools as both Hawai'i Hilo and HPU finished tied with a score of 23 in this year's PacWest Hawai'i Challenge. The Vulcans have gone a combined 11-0 against both the Silverswords and the Sharks in softball this season, joining the women's soccer, women's basketball and men's golf teams in earning maximized points for their sport section of the competition.
