San Rafael, CALIF. -- Dominican University of California )8-11, 5-3) dropped its third game of the series with Hawaii Pacific University (13-18, 8-8) by a score of 7-2. 

A series that had seemingly every reason to go unplayed resulted in a peculiar midweek triple header before playing the fourth and final game of the series on Thursday at Penguin field. Sophomore Melissa Garcia batted in both runners in the loss with sophomore Alicia Garcia, senior Shelby Keltner and freshman Annabelle Burke also notching hits. Keltner pitched all seven innings, striking out three while allowing six hits and just one earned run as late game errors plagued the Dominican defense. 

Dominican found itself in a pinch in the early going as the Sharks found themselves with two runners in scoring position and just one out. Keltner settled in and forced back-to-back fly outs to end the inning and keep the score knotted at zeroes. Dominican also threatened in the second when Burke hit a one out double into right field, but advancing to third would be as close as she came before the inning ended on a groundout two batters later. Hawaii Pacific struck first minutes later when a two out single found its way up the center of the field with the runner stealing second at the next at-bat. It wasn't long before the Sharks' runner was brought home during the next at-bat but the inning would end immediately after as the batter was thrown out as second after rounding first. 

The Penguins' runs came in the bottom of the fifth with a leadoff walk was awarded to senior Lauren Lapinid to put an early runner on the bases. The next to at-bats resulted in outs that put Dominican in a similar situation that the Sharks found themselves in just two innings prior — in need of a two-out rally. Freshman Kate Tobola followed Lapinid lead and walked her way to first, advancing Lapinid to second before both runners advanced on a passed ball during the Melissa Garcia at-bat. Garcia then hit the ball up the middle of the field to bring both runners home before landing herself on second base for a two-run double that gave Dominican a 2-1 lead. The Sharks tied the game in the bottom of the sixth as an inning-opening error eventually resulted in the tying run four batters later. The slew of errors continued into the top of the seventh inning as five more Sharks runs crossed home plate with none of them being titled as earned runs against Keltner due to four errors being committed in the inning, eventually leading to a 7-2 Hawaii Pacific victory. 

Dominican now looks ahead to tomorrow afternoon when it plays host to another Island visitor, this time the University of Hawaii at Hilo.