HILO, Hawai?i -- Azusa Pacific wrapped up a busy Saturday with a strong finish, enjoying a 3-0 win over Hawai?i Hilo after dropping the first two games of the weekend series on the Big Island of Hawai?i. The teams were scheduled for four games, but the opening game of Friday's doubleheader was suspended due to rain and completed prior to Saturday's originally-scheduled doubleheader.
Hawai?i Hilo edged the Cougars, 8-7, in the completion of Friday's suspended game, which picked up from where it was halted a day earlier in the top of the third inning, and UHH picked up a 9-1 victory in five innings before Azusa Pacific finished off the series with the 3-0 win.
Junior third baseman Madison Hernandez hit a three-run home run to left field with two outs in the third inning of the final game, pushing all three Cougar runs across the plate with a single swing, and senior pitcher Destinee Levesque scattered eight hits and one walk for the complete-game shutout.
Hernandez hit three home runs on the day, hitting her first two in the opening 8-7 defeat, and she finished the three-game series six-for-nine at the plate with eight RBIs to raise her season batting average to .421 while producing a team-high 21 RBIs. Hernandez is the conference leader in RBIs during PacWest play, driving in 18 runs through 13 conference games this year.
For Levesque, it was her first complete-game of the season, and it was her first collegiate shutout after she combined with other Cougar pitchers on two shutouts last year. She carried the weekend pitching load for Azusa Pacific, grinding out 12 of her team's 17.2 innings of work in the series.
Hawai?i Hilo loaded the bases twice against Levesque in the series finale but came away empty-handed both times. In the top of the fourth, the Vulcans registered consecutive two-out singles and loaded the bases on a catcher's interference ruling, but Amanda Lara flied out to centerfield to end the threat. An inning later, UHH strung together three straight singles, loading the bases with one out, but Levesque slammed the door on the scoring opportunity with a strikeout and groundout to keep the 3-0 lead intact.
The only other Vulcan baserunner in the final two innings came on Levesque's only walk of the game, and it was promptly erased by a line out double play to centerfielder Renae Chappelle, whose throw beat the baserunner back to first base for the inning-ending double play. Levesque retired UHH in order with three groundouts in the bottom of the seventh to finish off the victory.
In Friday's series opener, Azusa Pacific trailed 3-1 in the third inning when play was halted, and Hawai?i Hilo extended the lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the third when play resumed Saturday. A Hernandez solo home run made it 5-2, and freshman Illiana Jimenez turned a one-out bunt single in the fifth inning into another run that cut the margin to 5-3.
The Vulcans padded their lead with three more runs in the sixth inning, although two UHH errors led to the first of four Azusa Pacific runs in a seventh-inning rally. After Desiree Chavez scored on an error to make it a 8-4 game, Hernandez drilled her second home run of the game, a three-run home run to left to pull the Cougars within one at 8-7.
Jimenez and Chavez picked up two hits each in the middle game of the day, but the rest of the Cougar offense combined for just two more hits off UHH pitcher Danielle Wilson, who surrendered one run on six hits with four strikeouts in the five-inning win. Hawai?i Hilo built an 8-0 lead through four innings before Hernandez kept the game alive by scoring Jimenez from third base with a two-out RBI single in the top of the fifth inning. In the bottom of the inning, the first two Vulcan batters collected back-to-back singles and executed a double-steal to give UHH runners at second and third base with no outs. Carly Xepoleas induced a groundout to third that kept the runners in place, then struck out the next hitter for the second out before Brittany Huff ended the game with a two-out RBI single.
The weekend series drops Azusa Pacific's record to 11-13 overall and 5-8 in PacWest play. The Cougars visit Chaminade for a 4:30 p.m. local start (7:30 p.m. Pacific time) to Monday's doubleheader at Central O?ahu Regional Park in Waipio.
