HILO, Hawaii – What started as a pitchers duel ended with some offense in the final innings.

Azusa Pacific made it three straight wins to start PacWest play as they beat Hawaii Hilo 6-2 on Monday evening.

The Cougars were held scoreless for the opening six innings with just four hits before concluding the game with six hits and taking advantage of bad Vulcans defense.

Hawaii Hilo scored the game's first run in the opening inning then each starting pitcher settled-in.

In the seventh frame the Cougars tied the game when Justin Gomez, who start the inning with a single, scored on unearned run on a Zach Taylor sacrifice fly. During their next offensive opportunity the Cougars took the lead with a two-run eighth inning. Luke Huerta got the go-ahead RBI with a single that scored Pablo O'Connor. Azusa Pacific made the score 3-1 when Taylor hit a deep fly ball for a sacrifice fly which scored Gomez.

The Cougars scored three critical runs in the ninth inning. Adrian Tovalin hit a two-run homerun to leftfield to highlight the stanza. The final run was scored when Steven Garrett singled home Michael Staudinger.

Hawaii Hilo threatened during their final three outs as they loaded the bases with no outs. After a wild pitch scored a run, the bullpen duo of Mitch Williams and Dillon Miyashiro wrapped up the win with two strikeouts and groundout.

Azusa Pacific starting pitcher Joe Huthing had his best start of the season. The righthander went seven innings where he struck out three and allowed six hits.

For the Vulcans Jordan Kurokawa threw eight innings as he struck out 12 and allowed three unearned runs. The series concludes on Tuesday evening with a 6 p.m. (HST) first pitch.