Box Score 1 By Jacob Norling
April 13, 2025
 
(HILO, Hi.) Westmont Baseball (31-9, 26-7 PacWest) took another series this weekend after defeating the Hawaii Hilo Vulcans (9-28, 9-24) on Saturday night by a score of 8-6. The win did not come easy as the club trailed 5-2 heading into the late innings, but a late rally and a lights-out closer allowed the club to win its second consecutive series.
 
Trailing by a trio in the seventh, the Warriors loaded the bases with nobody out thanks to a pitch that found Jack Bollengier, a single from Shane Hofstadler, and a walk by Trey Dunn. The Warriors cashed in two batters later, when leadoff man Grant Yzermans brought home a pair on the base hit to right-center. Michael Soper followed up with a sacrifice fly to score Dunn, allowing Westmont to draw even in the seventh.
 
The Vulcans briefly regained the lead when they scored once in the home half of the seventh, but in the eighth, Westmont took the lead for good. The lead was regained thanks to some help from the Hilo defense, after the Warriors put a pair in scoring position with one out. The Vulcans walked Hofstadler to load the bases with one out for Dunn, and the Vulcans also got the groundball they were looking for that could have potentially ended the inning. Instead, an errant throw from the Vulcans' shortstop put the carousel in motion, allowing both Jesse Di Maggio and Daniel Patterson to score to make it 7-6 Westmont.
 
Paul Svagdis then handed the ball to Zach Yates, asking for a six-out save just as he did the night prior. Yates began his Saturday night by completing the first part of the plan and retiring the first three men he saw. A Patterson sac-fly got Yates one more run to work in the top of the ninth, allowing the fireman to attack the zone in the bottom half with an 8-6 lead.
 
To secure the series win, Yates got a strikeout, and a pair of groundouts to make it back-to-back nights with a six-up, six-down, two-inning save. Yates has now retired 19 in a row dating back to April 5 against Biola, with seven of the 19 going down on strikes. The senior collected his 11^th save of the season, while Josh Hickey picked up his fifth win of the season after throwing an inning and two-thirds in relief.
 
Game four of the series saw the Warriors get off to a hot start when RBI's by Bollengier and Michael Soper highlighted a three-run first inning. In the second inning the Warriors added two more, with Daniel Patterson driving home a run to make it 5-0. Hunter Hammond, Westmont's game four starter, pitched two efficient innings before giving way to Caden Beloian in the third. Beloian completed a scoreless third inning, before rain forced the game to be halted from that point on.
 
After three innings, an incomplete game had Westmont leading 5-0.
 
The Warriors return to baseball on the mainland this weekend with a road trip to Atherton on Friday, where Westmont will take on Menlo in a four-game series.