HAYWARD, Calif. – The Eagles clinched at least a share of the PacWest Conference crown on the same day that Concordia head coach
Crystal Rosenthal earned career win No. 600 with the program.
Ranked No. 7 in the country in the latest NFCA DII Poll and in the midst of a magical season, the Eagles pulled off a Thursday sweep of the Holy Names Hawks to reach both milestones.
"Every current and past player and every coach that's been a part of this has contributed to this number," said Rosenthal, who is
the first coach to reach 600 career wins in any sport in school history. "There are so many great people that have been involved with our program and they've all had a piece in this accomplishment."
"There's no one bigger than Rose," she continued, showing her appreciation for associate head coach
Rose Imbriano, who has coached at Concordia in the dugout every season with her. "We've been together with this team since day one and that means we've put together a quality program for many years and that's been awesome."
The Eagles can secure the outright conference title with one more win on Friday when the two teams again return to action.
Concordia has been ranked in the Top 10 nationally this entire season and leads all of NCAA DII with the best earned run average (ERA). After Thursday's two victories, the Eagles feature
four pitchers that have an ERA of 1.00 or lower.
Game 1: CUI 9, Holy Names 1
Concordia raced out to a 4-0 lead in the series opener by nearly batting around in the first inning.
A pair of walks and then back-to-back singles by
Shelby Pfeiler and
Shelli Faulk helped get the Eagles going.
Sydney Sprinkle smacked a base hit to bring home a couple more runs in the top of the second. Pfeiler later bashed another two-run single to push the advantage to 9-0 in favor of the Green and Gold.
Meanwhile,
Katlin Entrup (15-3) pitched three innings and only allowed one run. She struck out four and scattered six hits to earn the victory in the circle.
Senior
Erika Morris came on in the fourth and took care of business over the last two innings to keep the Hawks grounded.
Entrup and Morris remarkably
still have earned run averages under 1.00 along with
Rae Flores and
Cortney Koelmans, Those two pitched in the second game of the day.
Game 2: CUI 3, Holy Names 0
The CUI offense wasn't exactly clicking on all cylinders however the pitching staff continued to shine on a cloudy day in Northern California.
Flores made the start and tossed four shutout innings. She struck out five and worked around five walks but only allowed one hit on the afternoon.
Koelmans closed things out over the final three frames to keep the Hawks off the scoreboard for the combined shutout.
Faulk doubled home two runs for CUI in the top of the second inning to open the scoring.
A double by
Sydney Sprinkle to begin the sixth inning put CUI in position to tack on another run. Pinch-runner
Megan Johnson touched home plate safely after
Rylie Rohr laid down a bunt single to make it 3-0 Eagles.
Both defenses held from there and CUI improved to 40-5 overall and a perfect 26-0 in conference play.
"We did not play our best today but we did a good job finding a way to win," added Rosenthal.
The Eagles and Hawks are scheduled to play two more games on Friday beginning at 12 p.m. at the same location at Chabot College. Again, one more win for CUI will clinch the outright conference title.
The Eagles have finished in first place in the PacWest Conference in softball in each of the past three full seasons so this would mark the fourth straight year they have led the league in wins.
Concordia is just two weeks removed from earning the No. 1 ranking in the country.
Senior Day will be held on Saturday, April 30 back at Eagles Field.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI softball schedule
