HAYWARD, Calif. – Academy of Art softball's biggest singular inning of the season, a seven-run rally loaded with extra-base hits, powered the Urban Knights' 8-4 Pacific West Conference victory over Hawaii Pacific as part of a doubleheader split that included a 4-3 Sharks win on Monday. Freshman infielder Riannah Maulupe connected on the first two home runs of her collegiate career to highlight a rainy day out at Chabot College.

GAME 1 – HPU 4, ART U 3
Though the Sharks built a 4-0 lead by the fourth inning, the Urban Knights began cutting into the margin later in that frame as two errors came along with a single from sophomore pitcher/infielder Kayla Vaughan. The score would stall at 4-1 for the next two hours as a sudden rain and hailstorm hit the field, causing more maintenance to be done.

When play resumed in the fifth, Academy of Art was first to strike as a single by senior utility Alexis Folks and a double from junior infielder Audrey Allen set up senior catcher/infielder Liberty Herrera for a sacrifice fly.

Vaughan provided three scoreless relief innings to give her team a chance and that opportunity came in the seventh when Maulupe blasted the first homer of her collegiate career to lead off the frame and Allen promptly doubled for a third time to set a program record. HPU, however, got the outs it needed to hold on for the 4-3 victory in the end.

GAME 2 – ART U 8, HPU 4
Like the series opener, Hawaii Pacific held a 4-0 advantage in the initial innings, but the third frame absolutely belonged to Academy of Art. Sophomore outfielder Ari Mallari's single up the middle provided the first run and sparked three consecutive hits including a Folks double and Maulupe's three-run homer to the deepest part of the yard.

ART U did not stop there, however, as errors allowed another run to score before Herrera doubled down the left field line to produce one more and graduate student outfielder Cailee Grayhorse-Pupecki, who logged two hits in the inning, capped the seven-run momentum shift by tripling home Herrera.

Vaughan worked with the defense behind her to hold the Sharks scoreless the rest of the way and was supported by one more run in the fifth when Herrera hit a run-scoring double once again down the left field line to make the game 8-4 in her team's favor. Vaughan finished off the win with four runs allowed in a complete 7.0 innings while adding three strikeouts.

Splitting the day, Academy of Art sees its overall record shift to 3-23 while the Knights sit at 2-11 in PacWest action. Maulupe, who pushed her team-best reached base streak to 15 games, ended the day 2-for-8 with the two homers, four runs batted in, and two runs scored. Meanwhile, Allen finished the first game 3-for-4 with the aforementioned three doubles while Mallari ended a perfect 4-for-4 (tying the program record) with one driven in and one scored in the second contest. That game also saw Herrera go 2-for-3 with two runs batted in and two doubles ahead of Grayhorse-Pupecki's 2-for-3 effort that featured her 15th career triple.

Moving to 12-21 on the year and 6-11 in conference, Hawaii Pacific was led offensively by Hoku Ching's three-homer day (3-for-5) that included five runs batted in while Taylor Thompson (7-7) picked up the game one victory with three runs allowed on eight hits plus five strikeouts in 7.0 innings and Maggie O'Dowd (1-7) was tagged with the game two loss, surrendering seven runs on seven hits in 2.2 innings of work.

The two teams will settle their three-game series with one more contest at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Mar. 18 at Mission Blue Field.