HONOLULU – Dominican softball won the series finale against Hawaii Pacific University 3-1 after a marathon day of softball that saw the teams conclude a halted game before playing two more. The Sharks (9-19, 3-3 PacWest) won the first two games of the day 10-4 and 4-0 at Sand Island Park.

Alicia Garcia hit the Penguins (8-16, 5-11 PacWest) first home run of the season, a 2-run shot that proved to be the game winner in the final game of the day. Dominican pitchers allowed only one earned run in the regularly scheduled doubleheader for the day as Kathryn Caravalho was awarded the win to move to 2-4 and Shelby Keltner collected her third save of the season.

The day started with the teams picking up in the top of the fourth inning from a game that was halted due to inclement weather on Wednesday. Dominican trailed 9-0 and needed two runs scored to avoid its first five-inning loss of the season. Lauren Lapinid doubled to left center to lead off the top of the fourth and Caitlyn Perales singled to center to put runners on the corners. Perales stole second and an errant through to second allowed Lapinid to come home for the Penguins first run of the game with Perales finishing the play 60-feet from getting back within eight runs. Faith Erb then drew a walk and stole second with Bella Romani turning on an 0-2 count to line a ball into shallow right and bring home both runners to close the gap to 9-3. 

HPU got a run back in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to seven, but Dominican left a runner stranded at third to keep the game going. The Sharks tried to end it again in the bottom of the sixth as Kanoe Tanigawa tried to beat a ground ball to second home, but Erb threw home in time for the second out of the inning and Caravalho secured a popup back to the circle to move on to the seventh. 

Peyton Mott and Melissa Garcia each singled to lead off the final frame but Dominican was only able to get Mott home on a soft groundout to second for the final 10-4 margin.

The teams quickly turned around to start the second game of the day with the Penguins loading the bases with a pair of walks followed by a Keltner single to left field with one out. Taylor Thompson continued to frustrate the Dominican hitters with runners in scoring position as a pair of popups ended the threat with no runners coming home. 

Keltner did not allow a runner past first without an error in her four innings of work, but Brandi Leong singled to right and then advanced to third on a mishandled ball to lead off the bottom of the third. Noel Saunders then singled to center to bring her home for the 1-0 lead. The game remained that way until the bottom of the sixth when yet another Dominican error kept the inning going and allowed three more unearned runs to score for the 4-0 HPU victory.

After Thompson once again left three runners in scoring position stranded over the first two frames of the finale, Garcia delivered the moment the Penguins had been searching for the entire series with a 2-run home run over the left-center fence to take their first lead of the series 2-0. Jewel Larson doubled and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt to start the bottom of the fourth inning as HPU looked for an answer. Larson scored on a sacrifice fly, but Caravalho got the final batter swinging for the last out to preserve the lead.

Jillian Lampa led off the top of the fifth with a single through the left side and then promptly stole second to move into scoring position for Dominican. A sacrifice bunt was rendered moot as Garcia doubled to straightway center to extend the lead back to two.

The Sharks threatened to tie again in the bottom of the fifth as a pair of singles put runners on the corners, but Keltner entered and got Larson to popup to Erb at second to leave the runners stranded. Keltner did not allow a single runner on base over the final two frames as Dominican took home the victory.

Dominican will conclude its Hawaiian road trip as it travels to Hilo for a four game series beginning Sunday against University of Hawaii at Hilo at noon HST at Vulcan Softball Field.