IRVINE, Calif. – Playing for the first time since earning a No. 23 national ranking by the National Baseball College Writers Association (NBCWA), the Concordia Eagles continued to protect their home field on Friday.

The Green and Gold welcomed Fresno Pacific to newly renovated Eagles Field and were able to walk away with a split after winning the opening game of the series and seeing the Sunbirds escape with a comeback in the nightcap.

Game 1: Eagles 8, Sunbirds 1

The Eagles took the lead in the second inning by stringing together some timely hits. Calvin Schonebaum started in right field and crushed his first home run of the season after Philip Quartararo reached on an error. Schonebaum's two-run blast put the Eagles up 2-0 but there was more to come.

That same inning, Shane Hersh tattooed a pitch off the wall in right-center to make it 3-0. Derek Delgado followed with a sacrifice fly to push the CUI advantage to 4-0.

The Eagles piled on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 6-0. Matt Lautz scored on a balk and then Schonebaum collected a third RBI with a single that plated Bailey Collins.

Brett Vansant tossed six shutout innings and limited the Sunbirds to just four hits when he was on the mound. Relievers Chase Lyford and Isaiah Bettencourt combined for the final three frames out of the bullpen to cement the victory. The 8-1 final margin marked CUI's sixth straight win.

"Calvin Schonebaum had a really good first game and a quality day in general and continues to say hey look at me the right way," said CUI head coach Joe Turgeon. "And Brett Vansant threw the ball extremely well and in six innings gave us another quality start like he's been doing all year."

Game 2: Sunbirds 8, Eagles 4

Concordia was in position to win back-to-back games against Fresno Pacific until the ninth inning. Clinging to a 4-3 lead, CUI was two outs away from clinching the victory, but FPU rallied with five runs in the final frame to escape with an 8-4 victory.

"I thought we played out of 18 innings, 17 really good innings," said Turgeon. "So we pick each other up, and hopefully we can continue to play good baseball again on Saturday with good quality at-bats."

Philip Quartararo contributed a two-run double to help the cause in the second contest. Haloa Dudoit helped turn multiple double plays and collected two more hits as CUI's leadoff hitter. Hersh and Delgado each added two singles and Bailey Collins was on base three times after smacking a base hit and getting intentionally walked twice.

Concordia and Fresno Pacific will play another PacWest doubleheader on Saturday, March 7 with game 1 starting at 11:00 a.m.

For the full CUI baseball schedule, click here.