The Gators were unable to escape their recent offensive rut, dropping a pair of games 10-2 and 7-0 in a Wednesday doubleheader against the University of Hawaii at Hilo Vulcans.

“We didn’t really come out to play today, on offense or on defense,” said SF State’s head coach Cristina Byrne. “They played great ball, and we came out flat and paid for it.”

The Vulcan’s squad looked sharp at the plate, feasting sporadically on a host of Gators’ pitchers and scoring in droves that were limited to disastrous innings rather than retaining consistent offensive production.

“I tried to trust my defense to make plays,” said pitcher Megan Clark, who allowed only two runs through the first six innings of the second game. “Keeping the ball low and changing speeds a lot were the plan going into that game.”

A third inning blast from pitcher Aryn Guzman during the first game sailed over the left field fence, securing the Gators’ only runs of the afternoon.

“It felt great,” Guzman said of her second career home run. “I hit one last year so I’d like to get another to beat that if I can.”

Another bright spot for the Gators was the hitting performance of catcher Sara Higa, who went 3-for-3 in the second game with two doubles.

“Sara played great,” Byrne said. “She started us off right in some of those innings, which was nice.”

The Gators look forward to Friday, when they will kick off a four game series at home against Humboldt State University.

“We’ve played them plenty of times because they’re in our conference, so we know what to expect,” Byrne said. “We’ve got to play clean ball. We’re going to be running a lot of defense and pitching this week. You can bet we’ll be hitting a ton too.”