The only conference baseball played last week was on the islands, where Hawaii Pacific swept Biola in four games and Hawaii Hilo took three of four against Concordia. The Sharks are the Team of the Week, but even in dire times the Eagles and Golden Eagles won awards. Sam Lisiak (BU) is the Player of the Week after blasting three home runs and CUI’s Brett Finnel is the Pitcher of the Week after cooling off lava hot Hilo with a brilliant performance at Wong Stadium.

2023 Results/Schedule
2023 Standings
2023 Statistics

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Biola’s Sam Lisiak, C, R/R, Soph., Grand Rapids, Mich.                                     
Sophomore catcher Sam Lisiak had a big week at HPU, going 8-for-18 in five games (including game vs. Cal Poly Pomona before the trip), scoring five times, driving in four and hitting the three round-trippers. The Michigan native had a hit in each game, including two hits in three of the games. Lisiak is not hitting. .385 with hits in seven of the eight games he has played.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Concordia’s Brett Finnel, RHP, Jr., Riverside, Calif.
Brett Finnel saved his team from a sweep at the hands of fire hot Hawaii Hilo, shutting down the Vulcans in the final game of the series. The Golden Eagles had lost the first three games by a total of three runs before Finnel matched Vulcan starter Nick Agacki pitch-for-pitch in game four. Agacki took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before finally tiring, but Finnel pitched through the eighth as his team rallied for the 2-1 win. The former California Baptist pitcher’s final line read 8 innings, two hits, one earned run, three walks and 12 strikeouts. He departed after 106 pitches to pick up his first win of the season.

SHARKS SHOCK EAGLES: The PacWest Team of the Week is the HAWAII PACIFIC SHARKS. Picked to finish seventh in the PacWest preseason poll, the Sharks kicked off conference play in grand fashion with four straight wins over Biola. The Sharks won by the scores of 6-3 10-2, 8-6 and 3-2 to improve to 7-4 on the season and to 4-0 in the PacWest. Kota Suzuki swung a hot bat all weekend, going 7-for-14 and scoring six runs. Andrew Hauck had the top pitching performance of the series for HPU during their 10-2 win, going 6.1 innings and allowing only three hits, two runs and he struck out five.

THREE PACWEST TEAMS REMAIN RANKED: Point Loma and Hawaii Hilo stayed at No. 2 and 4 respectively in this week’s National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association west region poll. Cal State San Bernardino remained at No. 1 and idle Azusa Pacific went from five to six. The entire poll looks like this. (1) Cal State San Bernardino 9-1, (2) Point Loma 8-3, (3) Cal Poly Pomona 8-1, (4) Hawaii Hilo 10-2, (5) San Francisco State 9-2, (6) Azusa Pacific 6-7, (7) Cal State Monterey Bay 5-6, (8) Chico State 5-4, (9) Sonoma State 4-1, (10) Stanislaus State 8-6. RV—Hawaii Pacific 7-4 (9 pts), Holy Names 7-3 (7 pts.).

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: In addition to Sam Lisiak’s three home runs last week, teammate Wyatt Duncan did the same with a trio of round trippers…Hawaii Hilo’s Casey Yamauchi hit .417 in the Concordia series with two doubles and a triple…There was a lot of great pitching last week in the PacWest. Including pitchers that pitched at least five innings, five of them gave up only one earned run in their outings—CUI’s Brett Finnel, UHH’s Nick Agacki, Fernando Duenas (ART U), Gilbert Logan (Biola) and Aaron Davies (Hilo)…Agacki, mentioned above during the dual with Concordia’s Finnel, took a no-hitter into the seventh inning with two outs before a hit batter, two balks and a hit derailed him. Still, he only gave up one hit in seven innings, one run and he fanned 11 in the no decision.  

THIS WEEK IN THE PACWEST: The teams in Hawaii swap opponents this week as Concordia visits Hawaii Pacific and Biola island hops to Hawaii Hilo. Later in the week, Academy of Art plays at Holy Names, and over the weekend the Hawks travel to Fresno Pacific.