HPU clinches share of baseball title after taking three from GCU

HPU clinches share of baseball crown

PHOENIX, AZ – The Hawai‘i Pacific baseball team used a 6-2 victory in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader at Grand Canyon to clinch a share of its first Pacific West Conference Championship.

The Sea Warriors, who dropped the nightcap 7-4, are now 20-4 in league play and 28-10 overall. Both Grand Canyon and Dixie State are 16-12 with a four-game series remaining between the two clubs in St. George, Utah.

HPU has eight conference games left on its slate – four with Hawai‘i Hilo this weekend and four with Academy of Art on May 1 and 2. The Sea Warriors need to win just one of those eight remaining conference games to clinch the title outright.

Hawai‘i Pacific could conceivably lose all eight remaining games and still claim sole possession of the PacWest Championship if Dixie State and Grand Canyon failed to sweep each other this weekend in St. George.

The Sea Warriors could actually clinch the conference championship outright this Friday before ever taking the field vs. the Vulcans. If Grand Canyon and Dixie State, who play several hours earlier on Friday, split their doubleheader, they would eliminate each other and hand the crown to the Sea Warriors.

If the Sea Warriors clinch sole possession of the baseball championship, it would give the HPU athletic program its second conference title of the athletic year and boost their Commissioner’s Cup point average from 7.500 to 7.722.

With the Sea Warrior softball team currently in first place and likely to finish in first or second, the Hawai‘i Pacific athletic program – at a minimum – will see 10 of its 11 athletic programs finish no worse than in third place.