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Hilo outplays Hilo continues to own bragging rights among Hawaii's college baseball teams for at least a few more days.
another Oahu team
The Vulcans won their fifth
straight against in-state competitionBy Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comThe Vulcans, coming off their historic sweep of Hawaii-Manoa two weekends ago, beat Hawaii Pacific, 8-3, last night at Murakami Stadium, making it 5-0 this year against in-state competition.
Daniel Lockett drove in four runs and Jason Castro and Joel Zimmerman combined on a seven-hitter for Hilo.
A turnstile count of 713 saw at least some of the three opening-day games of the Rainbow-hosted Easter Baseball Tournament yesterday. They weren't all there for the HPU-Hilo nightcap, but it sounded like it as a loud Vulcan dugout and noisy Sea Warrior cheering section tried to out-do each other.
UH-Manoa, which had yesterday off, plays HPU on Friday and gets another shot at Hilo on Saturday.
"We're the best team in Hawaii ... this year," said second baseman Chad Agustin, who scored three runs. "We might not end up with a lot of wins this year, but we still want as many as we can get."
With its fifth consecutive win, Hilo is 9-25-1. HPU fell to 17-17.
"We tried to tell our kids this is like our playoffs, because obviously we're not going to any postseason," Hilo coach Joey Estrella said. "We had some spirited intersquad practices. This is a long tournament. We know you can go from the penthouse to the outhouse real fast. We hope we can sustain our energy level."
Castro said last night's game was his best outing of the season.
"I had all my pitches, but my change was best," Castro said. "Everybody stayed pump from last game, so it helped to get offense right away and I could just let the defense work."
HPU appeared to battle back throughout the game, but Sea Warriors coach Allan Sato didn't see it that way.
"I don't think so. In nine innings you only get four or five chances to score and pull away," he said. "We're just not swinging the bat lately."
Sato did credit Castro.
"He did a super job," Sato said. "He changed speeds and hit his spots. He had us swinging off our front foot all night."
After a 1-2-3 first inning by Castro, including two strikeouts, the Vulcans took a 2-0 lead in their half.
Hilo started with three hits in a row. Kaliko Oligo led off with a sharp single to right to start the game and scored on Darren Chu's triple to right-center. Chu then scored on Johnny Dudoit's hard single to center.
HPU closed to 2-1 in the second. Ikaika DuPont singled up the middle to score T.C. Everett, who stole second after reaching on a force out of Jonathan Torres. Torres, who had three hits, singled to start the inning.
In the fourth, Chad Agustin walked, advanced to third on Sean Tamura's double into the right-field corner, and scored on a ground out to first by Lockett. The Vulcans led 3-1.
Hilo improved its lead to 5-2 with two more runs in the sixth inning, chasing HPU starter Steve Stader. Tamura's single and Lockett's double scored Keola Park, who reached on an infield single, and Agustin, who was hit by a pitch.
Another double by Lockett in the seventh brought in two more Vulcan runs, both unearned off reliever Kai Austin.
HPU wasn't done.
In the eighth, Hirota led off with a triple and Taguchi singled him home, chasing Castro. Zimmerman got the next three Sea Warriors in order to stop the rally and also pitched a perfect ninth to end it.
Birmingham-Southern 6, Lewis-Clark State 5: In the tournament's opening game, the Panthers beat the Warriors in a rematch of last year's NAIA championship.
LCSU reliever Junior Avina (0-1) hit two batters and threw a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth, allowing Birmingham-Southern to score the winning run.
Godwin went 3-for-4 for the Panthers, including a two-run double to key a four-run seventh that gave Birmingham-Southern a 5-3 lead.
Tyler Sullivan (1-0) got the win in relief for Birmingham-Southern.
Micah Furtado, a 2000 Star-Bulletin all-state second baseman from Kapaa High School, went 1-for-4 and scored a run for LCSU. His third-inning single extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
Furtado came into the game hitting .500 in 56 at bats and with a .597 on-base percentage.
Birmingham-Southern improved to 14-11. Lewis-Clark State, which won a share of the tournament championship last year and won it outright in 2000, fell to 18-7.
Birmingham-Southern plays Hawaii tonight at 6:35 in the first meeting between the schools and the Rainbows' tournament opener.
San Jose State 12, California Riverside 4: The Spartans turned a close game into a rout with a two runs in the seventh and five in the eighth.
Gabe Lopez led a 15-hit attack with two doubles and a single. Hector Zamora added two doubles.
Jason Collette led the Highlanders with two doubles.
San Jose State starter Frank Esposito (1-1) allowed one earned run in 5 1/3 innings for the win. Chris Smith (4-3) started for Riverside and lost; four of the six runs he yielded in 6 1/3 innings were earned.
The Spartans -- playing their fourth game of a nine-games-in-nine-days island stay -- improved to 20-9 with their third consecutive victory. The Highlanders fell to 15-11.
UH-Hilo Athletics