BRISBANE, Calif. – The third-ranked Concordia University Irvine Eagles concluded their eight-game road trip in Northern California Monday with two exclamation points.
CUI cruised past Academy of Art to extend their winning streak to 20 games – which is the longest winning streak to open up a season in program history during the NCAA DII era.
"It's really awesome to be a part of something like this," said senior
Sydney Sprinkle. "It shows off all our hard work and our love and passion for the game. Going out there and being able to play the game we love with the people we love is a blessing and I'm so proud to be able to play and represent the university and this program."
Earlier on Monday,
the Eagles landed two more PacWest Conference Award winners as
Katlin Entrup was named PacWest Pitcher of the Week and
Megan Massa garnered PacWest Player of the Week honors.
Game 1: CUI 8, Academy of Art 2
Kendall Flatt smashed her first career home run in the first inning to make it a 5-0 advantage. CUI had scored its first two runs after an error.
Rylie Rohr supplied a RBI single in the top of the second inning. Two more Eagles crossed the plate after a
Lauren Lopez single to give Concordia a commanding 8-0 lead.
Cortney Koelmans maneuvered through five innings while allowing only two hits and one run to improve to 5-0.
After Koelmans exited,
Madison Urrutia and
Erika Morris each pitched one inning to help keep the Knights off balance.
Game 2: CUI 9, Academy of Art 1
Massa, Rohr and Sprinkle each poked two hits and together drove in six runs in the second game of the doubleheader. Sprinkle connected for a pair of 2-run singles in the third and the sixth innings.
Shelli Faulk doubled home two more runs in the top of the fifth. After Sprinkle's second base hit in the sixth,
Lauren Lopez rounded out the scoring with a RBI single to make it 9-1.
Pitcher
Rae Flores worked five frames on the mound and struck out four while only allowing four hits. Flores is now 4-0. Freshman
Bella Calvo came on for the final inning and needed only 15 pitches to close out the win.
CUI went 8-0 on the road trip which is also their current conference record.
The Eagles outscored Dominican and Academy of Art by a jaw-dropping 52 combined runs (64 to 12) during their week up north. The softball team also had a chance to catch parts of the CUI baseball and men's lacrosse games that were being played in the Bay Area over this past weekend.
"Traveling with the team is always fun and crazy," added Sprinkle. "You never know what's going to happen and sometimes it takes a minute for the team to settle in to a different place, but we came together and played for each other and had a successful trip. This trip was especially fun because we were able to support our baseball team and men lacrosse team as well! It was awesome having the lacrosse team come out and cheer us on too, you can say Concball took over NorCal this trip! It was an awesome time."
Together, the CUI softball, baseball and men's lacrosse teams went a combined 13-1 on their road trips up north!
The Eagles are off for a few days before they host Biola next week for a doubleheader on Thursday, March 10.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI softball schedule
