IRVINE, Calif.- The No. 12 Concordia University Irvine softball team celebrated Senior Day in style on Friday as they opened up a four-game series with Azusa Pacific in emphatic fashion. 
 
CUI honored these 11 seniors before the game: Julianna Covarrubias, Sydni Dix, Myka Hughes, Brooke Jackson, Lauren Lopez, Nicole Lukinbeal, Monica Martinez, Callie Nunes, Marisa Stockton, Kelsea Sweeney, and McKinsey Thorpe. 
 
The Eagles were fired up and the bats stayed hot all day. CUI's offense gave their pitchers plenty of run support, run-ruling the Cougars in both games and scoring a total of 17 runs. The pitching staff also combined to allow only one run over the course of the doubleheader.
 
"I love Senior Day," stated CUI head coach and athletic director Crystal Rosenthal. "It's a hard day, but I just feel like you earn that, and we missed that last year. It was fun because we (also) had some of last year's seniors on facetime so it was nice to have them (involved). It's so fun to watch kids grow and their parents get a chance to do this. It was a cool day for us and a really good day for our seniors overall on the field, so it's a nice way to wrap up our home season."
 
Game: CUI 8, APU 0 (6 innings)
 
All-American Callie Nunes shined in the circle in the opener. The senior tossed a one-hit shutout and faced the minimum in terms of possible batters. Nunes had a perfect game going through four frames and the only player to reach base was erased on a beautiful unassisted double play by first baseman Missy Nemeth. 
 
Nunes hit her spots, keeping the Cougars offense off-balance. She recorded four strikeouts to add to her school record total in that category and also induced 10 flyouts and three groundouts. She improved to 10-3 on the year with the victory as she inches closer to two more school records. Nunes currently ranks No. 2 in career wins (75) behind Natalie Brown (81). She also sits No. 2 in the CUI record books in shutouts with 26, which is one shy of tying Katie Cotta (27).
 
"We were pretty emotional at the beginning of the game, just the seniors in general," stated Nunes. "So being able to just go back on the mound, it almost felt like everything washed away. All that (emotional feelings) was gone, and it was just back to the place on the mound, in the dugout, on the field, in the box, so it was just really cool to get back to normal and just play a game."
 
Nunes only had to pitch six innings because the bats came alive and several players reached base multiple times in this one, including Thorpe, Rylie Rohr, Sydney Sprinkle, and Jocelyn Pino.
 
Thorpe was 3-for-4 with two singles and a double, while racking up three RBI on her Senior Day. Marisa Stockton also got a base hit in her at-bat and scored a run and Brooke Jackson entered the game as a pinch-runner and was able to touch home plate safely as well. 
 
Rohr had a field day, accumulating three RBI with a single and a double as well. Sprinkle and Pino each reached base three times, with both of them working a pair of walks to go with a base knock.
 
Rohr's clutch two-run double plated Pino and Nemeth to clinch the 8-run lead in the bottom of the sixth and end the game early.
 
Game Two: CUI 9, APU 1 (6 innings)
 
The Green and Gold continued where they left off and finished Senior Day strong. Sweeney got the starting nod and only allowed three hits over four scoreless innings. 
 
She was staked to an early 1-0 lead in the third when Megan Massa reached on a RBI single to left field and scored senior Myka Hughes. 
 
Then the flood gates opened up. CUI batted around in the bottom of the fourth inning and nine consecutive batters reached base with one out. 
 
Lauren Lopez provided a RBI single with the bases loaded to make it 2-0 but then Erika Morris stepped up and smashed a pinch-hit grand slam to really salute the seniors.
 
"I knew just to trust myself and I wasn't really thinking anything of it," said Morris. "I decided to swing at the first pitch that I saw and it happened to be right there. "We were super confident and we just came out trying to get ahead early and that's what we did. I'm just super proud of all my teammates for coming together."
 
Nemeth and Pino each knocked in another run to expand the margin to 8-0 and all of a sudden the game was out of reach.
 
Rae Flores came in and pitched the final two innings to help close it out. Thorpe and Rohr finished the day with five hits apiece.
 
"I think when we are able to swing our bats it makes the games so much more fun and I think we always have it in us," reflected Stockton, who finished the day with a pair of singles. "I think it's just those few hits to get across (that) make a really big difference so it was a lot more fun and we were able to have a Conc ball party in the dugout."
 
"Senior day is something that we all look forward to so being able to work hard for four years and finally having a senior day is always super special," reflected Nunes. "The underclassmen chip in, everybody works hard for it and really just to make it special for all of us seniors. To have two amazing big wins today was the cherry on top of the cake, it was really awesome."
 
"They (the seniors) are dedicated and have shown the most grit out of anyone else," added Morris. "It makes me sad to see them go, but I'm happy that I have been able to spend my three years that I have been here with them."
 
"We worked hard the last couple of weeks," said Rosenthal. "They looked much better at practice so I was going to be a little surprised if we could not hit today. To be honest this is a really challenging schedule to gain a rhythm, you're seeing the same people so many times it's very hard to do that both for the pitcher and the hitter. I think today finally we were seeing probably eight or nine innings of really good practice come alive at the plate."
 
CUI controls its destiny as the Eagles have a chance to win the Southern California PacWest pod title on Saturday. If CUI sweeps its doubleheader at APU, the Eagles will pass Biola and claim the crown. If CUI splits, then the Eagles will be co-champs of the SoCal pod with Biola.
 
Game one on Saturday is slated to begin at 12 p.m. at Azusa.
 
For the most up-to-date schedule for CUI softball, CLICK HERE.
 
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