HILO, Hawaii --- The Biola baseball team played their first of four games against the Hawaii Hilo Vulcans on Wednesday afternoon. The Eagles won in dominant fashion, 13-3.
Jacob Talbott got the start for Biola. He went five innings, giving up three runs, two earned, on four hits and striking out three. Wyatt Nichol entered in the top of the sixth inning and held Hilo to only four hits and no runs. He also struck out four. The Eagles pitching held the Hilo offense to three runs on eight hits.
Offensively for Biola, four Eagles had two hits, including Jonny Tewinkle, Kyle Rogers, James Whitman and Oscar Knapp. Luke Caruso, Josh McAninich, Adiel Torres and Kevin Villegas all logged one hit. Biola walked seven times, adding to their PacWest leading total.
The Eagles got on the board early, courtesy of an RBI single from Knapp, scoring Tewinkle in the top of the first inning. In the top of the second, Biola plated three runs off fielding errors by the Hilo defense. The Vulcans responded in both innings scoring three in the first two innings.
After a scoreless third, BU exploded for five runs in the fourth by way of an RBI single from Whitman and a Rogers double. Torres closed out the inning with a two run homer to left center field. In the seventh, the Eagles scored three more thanks to a sacrifice fly from Caruso and a walk to Whitman. An RBI double by Tewinkle added one more run in the top of the ninth.
With the win, the Eagles move to 12-9 overall and 8-5 in conference.
Biola will play game two 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.
