BOX SCORE HILO, Hawaii – Hawaii-Hilo scored seven runs in the first inning and the hole was too big for Augustana to climb out of as they dropped their fifth game of the season, 10-1. The Vikings fall to 2-5 on the season and the Vulcans even their record to 1-1.
The Vikings went down in order in the top of the first, but Hawaii-Hilo capitalized on Augustana mistakes in their half of the first to take a commanding 7-0 lead after just one inning.
Ben Heairet walked the two first Vulcan batters and gave up a three-run homerun to the next batter. After striking out the next hitter, Heairet surrendered a single and hit a batter. A sacrifice fly pushed across Hawaii-Hilo's fourth run, and a double scored a fifth run.
A fourth hit knocked in the sixth and seventh runs of the inning and Heairet's day on the mound was finished.
Michael Letkewicz finished the Vulcans off with a fly ball to left field, but not before the Vulcans built what proved to be an insurmountable lead.
Augustana managed to place the leadoff runner on base by walk, but couldn't manage to put a dent in the seven-run lead. After two Vulcans grounded out to third, Hawaii-Hilo capitalized on Viking mistakes.
Letkewicz walked two batters and gave up a base-clearing triple before fanning the final batter. The Vulcan lead reached 9-0 just after two innings.
Zach Dibble recorded the first hit for Augustana after
TJ Davis walked, but three consecutive batters were dismissed on strikes, leaving the Vikings with another zero on the board.
The Vulcans walked their 10th run across the plate in the third inning, finishing their scoring for game two. Both teams went down in order in the fourth inning before Augustana showed some signs of life on offense in the fifth inning.
Troy Pilkington reached on an error to start the inning, advancing to second on the errant throw. Pilkington then advanced to third on a groundout to the short stop and scored on Dibble's grounder. The Vikings scoring was complete for the day, aided by two Vulcan errors.
Augustana mustered a pair of hits in the sixth and seventh innings, but couldn't recover from the damage Hawaii-Hilo inflicted in the first three innings.
Dibble, Davis, and
Brian Duxbury were the only Vikings to record a hit and
David Borchardt's 19-game hitting streak was snapped with a 0 for 2 performance at the plate.
Heairet was saddled with the loss, giving up seven earned runs in less than an inning of work.
The Vikings close out their trip to Hawaii with another twinbill with host Hawaii-Hilo.
