Box Score WAIPAHU, HI (February 12, 2015) – The Hawai'i Pacific Baseball Team (1-0) opened the season with a 5-1 comeback win over Northwest Nazarene (2-3) at Hans L'Orange Park on Thursday night.

HPU began the season with its only single game of the year, the first of five with the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC)'s Crusaders.

NNU started the scoring in the fourth inning when it scratched out a run on two singles.

The Sharks had just three hits through the first five innings against NNU's Colton Loomis. However, HPU broke though in a big way in the sixth inning.

Jordan Oshiro singled and then stole second base to start the inning; he scored when the throw on Tyler Tokunaga's bunt got away from the first baseman. In all the commotion, no one covered second base and Tokunaga kept on running. He scored the go-ahead run when Derek Nakasato singled back up the middle. Nakasato then moved to second on a wild pitch before scoring on newcomer Nolan Barraza's RBI hit. Barraza, who took second on the throw home, scored the fourth run of the inning courtesy of a Chad Bolibol single.

HPU tacked on another run in the eighth inning when Codey Ellenwood doubled with one out. Pinch hitter Tre Haliburton-Goeas the delivered a RBI hit to put HPU up 5-1.

The offense was more than enough for the dominant HPU pitching staff, which struck out a combined 11 batters. Starter Rico Garcia scattered seven hits over six innings while walking one and giving up one run. Garcia punched out eight Crusaders for the win in front of scouts.

John Albert and Jordan Deponte limited NNU to one hit over the final three innings.

The top of the order was strong with the first three hitters, Oshiro, Nakasato, and Tokunaga each getting two hits.

The two teams will play a doubleheader tomorrow beginning at 4:00 pm at Hans L'Orange Park.