IRVINE, Calif. - After playing 11 consecutive road games and logging a long trip through Hawai'i, the No. 8 Concordia University Irvine softball team was happy to be back in Southern California on its home field.

The rain followed the Green and Gold back from Hawaii but the Eagles and the visiting Argonauts from Notre Dame de Namur were able to get both of their scheduled PacWest Conference games in on a soggy Tuesday.

After surviving a tight first game to open the series, the Eagles responded with a dominant performance in the second game to post back-to-back victories.

Game 1: Eagles 2, Argonauts 1

Concordia took a 1-0 lead in the second when Michelle Lieng reached on a bunt single and stole two bases. A poor throw to third base as she stole that bag allowed her to race home and score the game's first run.

After NDNU tied the game in the top of the sixth, the Eagles responded quickly with Lieng again setting the table. The senior reached again on a bunt single and was sacrificed over to second by Sarah Kretschmar. Two batters later, pinch-hitter Alyssa Turner stepped to the plate and cranked a two-out RBI single to plate Lieng and give the Eagles the lead for good.

Along with Turner's clutch base hit, Lieng and Lauren Lopez each finished game one with two hits to lead the CUI offense.

Callie Nunes (7-2) kept the Argonauts off balance by limiting the visitors to only three hits and one run. Nunes struck out eight batters and collected her third complete game of the year. The Modesto, Calif. native now has 631 career strikeouts which puts her just 26 away from tying Natalie Brown (657) for the school record. Grayson Harvey is currently second in CUI program history with 652 career punchouts.

Game 2: Eagles 10, Argonauts 0 (5 innings)

Senior Jordan Quinn also pitched a complete game shutout and limited the Argos to only three hits. She struck out two and walked just three batters while keeping the visitors at bay.

While Quinn and her teammates shut down NDNU defensively, the CUI offense came to life.

Catcher Mackenzie Graham knocked in two runs in game two including the first run of the contest on a RBI groundout in the bottom of the first.  Lopez, Graham and Lieng each added RBI singles to help spark a six-run third inning that stretched CUI's lead to 7-0.  After the Eagles scored another run off an error, Amanda Gjertsen added a two-run homer in the fourth to close out the scoring.

"Alyssa's swing and pinch hit was a big one in game one," said CUI head coach Crystal Rosenthal. "Lauren Lopez has been awesome the last three weeks and has been a bright spot offensively. Amanda and Megan Massa also swung the bat better today so overall some positives and we're working on improving a little bit every game."

"Our pitching was really good. We had a good game from Callie and again from Jordan in game two," added Rosenthal. "Clearly we are out of rhythm. We didn't play our best on the road trip, but we have to swing our way out of it and today I thought I saw some of our kids start to look a lot better (at the plate)."

VIDEO: CUI's Lopez talks about Tuesday's two victories over NDNU

The Green and Gold are scheduled to close out their four-game series with Notre Dame de Namur on Wednesday, March 11. Game one of that doubleheader is slated to start at 2 p.m. but please be sure to look for any time changes due to a rainy forecast. Any game changes or delays will be announced via our Twitter accounts at @cuieagles and @CUISoftball as well as on cuieagles.com 

For the full CUI softball schedule, click here.