The Hawaii Pacific baseball team’s special season took a hit on Wednesday, but the Sharks are still swimming.

HPU’s 5-0 loss to Concordia Irvine on Day 1 of the double-elimination PacWest Conference championships meant that it must be perfect the rest of the way through Saturday.

Coach Dane Fujinaka’s second-seeded team (30-21) faces Point Loma in an elimination contest at 8 a.m. Hawaii time Friday at Azusa Pacific’s Cougar Baseball Complex, with the hope of earning another knockout game at 4 p.m. that day.

CUI gets defending champion Azusa Pacific at noon HST in the winners’ bracket. The winner of HPU and Point Loma will face the loser of that game.

HPU has its first 30-win season since 2016 and entered the four-team tournament on a six-game winning streak, but got shut down by CUI’s PacWest Co-Pitcher of the Year Jake Covey (7-2), who fired a four-hit shutout with eight strikeouts against three walks. He finished at 128 pitches for his fifth complete game of the season.

"Not a chance this time of year," CUI coach Joe Turgeon told the PacWest. "He was gonna finish, I wasn't going to take the ball from him."

Conor Hourigan (1-2) took the loss for HPU after going six innings with eight hits, two walks and five runs allowed while striking out three. Makana Quia (two innings, four strikeouts) and Vicente Molina (one inning) provided effective relief but the Sharks were not able to advance a baserunner past second.

Golden Eagles left fielder Michael Dixon equaled HPU’s hit tally himself with a 4-for-4 day, all singles. Designated hitter Wyatt Madison hit a three-run homer in CUI’s four-run sixth inning to blow the game open.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.