Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 AZUSA, Calif. – Chalk up another sweep for the Cougars. 

Azusa Pacific swept their fifth doubleheader of the season as they took a pair from PacWest foe Hawaii Hilo on Saturday.

The Cougars improve to 19-7 overall and 9-5 in league games while Hawaii Hilo falls to 5-14 and 3-11 respectively. 

Game One – Azusa Pacific 9, Hawaii Hilo 1

The Cougars rode a trio of hot hitters and the pitching did the rest.

Despite trailing 1-0 entering their half of the third inning, Azusa Pacific put a six-spot on the scoreboard as they sent 11 batters to plate. Highlighting the inning was an Adrian Tovalin grand slam. The freshman crushed a 2-0 pitch into right field that scored Jordan Brower, Daniel Martin and Mitch Dergazarian. Also during that stanza, Brower and Ryan Santana had RBI hits.

Azusa Pacific kept the Vulcans at bay of the rest of the way but not before adding a run in the fifth inning then two more in the sixth inning.

Tovalin went 3-for-5 with two runs and five RBIs. In addition to his third inning grand slam, the freshman added a solo shot in the sixth inning.

Brower also had a productive day at the dish as the senior went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs. He also hit a big fly in the sixth inning.

Brian Magana added a 3-for-5 effort highlighted by a solo homerun in the fifth inning.

Josh Staumont upped his record to 3-1 after going six innings where he allowed just three hits and struck out 11. The bullpen trio of Michael Shaw, David May and Joel Belk gave-up just one hit to close out the game. 

Game Two – Azusa Pacific 6, Hawaii Hilo 3

The Cougars jumped out early before overcoming a slim deficit to earn the sweep.

Azusa Pacific put the first three runners on base as they roughed-up Vulcans starting pitcher Jordan Kurokawa for two runs and three hits in the first inning. The Cougars were in position to plate more runs but they left the base loaded to end the frame.

Hawaii Hilo came back with two unearned runs as Samuel Kim and Michael Hernandez scored to knot the game at 2-2 after two innings.

The visitors took a brief 3-2 lead when Ekidson Sakta scored an unearned run on a Jordan Murai single in the fifth inning. In the Cougars half of the stanza they tied the game back up when a Jordan Brower double scored Daniel Martin from first base. 

In the sixth inning Pablo O'Connor and Joe Huthsing doubled and walked respectively to start the stanza. After a sacrifice bunt by Austin Shives and a Michael Staudinger walk, Mitch Dergazarian drove a 1-1 pitch to deep right field which easily scored O'Connor and Huthsing. For good measure the Cougars added a single run in the eighth inning on a Staudinger sacrifice fly that scores Shives, who started the inning with a triple.

Azusa Pacific starting pitcher Jacob Cage was on point during his 76-pitch outing. The right hander struck out two in 7.1 innings and didn't allow an earned run. Josh Grajeda struck out two as a part of his perfect ninth inning to earn his third save.