IRVINE, Calif. – Enjoy this 2022 Concordia University Irvine softball team. 

Because what this group is doing does not happen every year.

The No. 2 team in the country extended its winning streak to 32 games to start the season after fending off a talented University of Hawaii at Hilo squad in Saturday's doubleheader.

Concordia remains the only undefeated softball team in the NFCA DII Coaches Poll and continues to build its case to move up to the No. 1 spot after UT-Tyler suffered its second loss of the season against Angelo State this week.

The Eagles are now 32-0 overall and 20-0 in PacWest Conference play. CUI holds a six-game lead over Azusa Pacific in the league standings and has already beaten the Cougars twice.
 
Game 1: CUI 2, UHH 1

The Eagles topped the Vulcans by the exact same score of 2-1 as they did on Friday in the series opener. 

However, they got to that point in a very different way.

On Friday, Missy Nemeth and Rylie Rohr bashed back-to-back homers to catapult CUI to victory (twice).

This time, Lauren Fairchild supplied a clutch RBI single to help the Eagles strike first in the bottom of the second inning. The Eagles scraped together a second run when they loaded the bases and Sydney Sprinkle earned a walk to force in a run.

UHH plated their lone run in the third off an error.  CUI pitcher Rae Flores pitched well in the first three innings before giving way for Erika Morris to finish the deal.

Morris earned the win in relief to move to 8-0 on the season.
 
Game 2: CUI 6, UHH 1

The Eagles backed Cortney Koelmans and Katlin Entrup with some more offense in the second game of the day. The two pitchers combined to allow only three hits and one unearned run in seven innings of work.

After falling behind 1-0 the Eagles came alive in the second half of the game.  Kaia Nisby collected three hits including the go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.  Rylie Rohr had tied the game on an infield hit moments before Nisby struck and it was 2-1 Eagles after four frames.

In the fifth, the Green and Gold tacked on three more runs on one swing.  Rohr did it again, this time crushing a three-run homer over the left field fence for her third homer of the series.

The shortstop from Yucca Valley High School is tied with Nemeth for the team lead with eight round-trippers this year.

Nisby also had some superb defensive plays including a great throw home to freshman catcher Kendall Flatt to nail a runner trying to score.

Concordia is slated to host Hawaii Pacific on both Monday and Tuesday for doubleheaders each day that will begin at 2 p.m. PT.  However, rain is in the forecast for Monday so those games could be in jeopardy.

Be sure to check back here on cuieagles.com for the latest updates as well as on our twitter and Instagram feeds: @cuieagles and @cuisoftball if anything changes.

CLICK HERE for the full CUI softball schedule