HAYWARD, Calif. – The Concordia University Irvine softball team secured the PacWest Conference title on Friday by capping off a series sweep of Holy Names and improving to an eye-popping 28-0 in league play.
CUI rapped out 33 hits and scored 30 runs against the Hawks in the two wins to sweep the four-game series up north.
The Eagles have now won three PacWest Conference crowns outright since 2018. It's also the fourth time in a row that CUI has finished in first place in the softball standings when a full season has been played (only exception was the 2020 shortened season due to COVID-19).
CUI also won the Southern California Pod and the automatic qualifier berth in the unorthodox 2021 season when no PacWest Champion was named due to abnormal pod scheduling.
This comes just one day after the Eagles won twice to help reach another milestone. Concordia softball head coach
Crystal Rosenthal earned career victory No. 600 along with her longtime friend and associate coach
Rose Imbriano who has been with her every step of the way in the dugout over the last decade.
Ranked No. 7 in the country in the latest NFCA DII Poll, Concordia has been ranked in the Top 10 nationally this entire spring and leads all of NCAA DII with the best earned run average (ERA). The Eagles entered the weekend with
four pitchers that have an ERA of 1.00 or lower with the talented quartet of Katin Entrup,
Rae Flores,
Cortney Koelmans and
Erika Morris.
Game 1: CUI 11, Holy Names 3
Sydney Sprinkle went 4-for-5 at the plate with three RBI and finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
Jasmine Gorman started the scoring with a RBI double to left field in the top of the third inning. Sprinkle followed by bashing a two-run homer to make it 3-0.
Rylie Rohr and freshman catcher
Kendall Flatt each added two more hits. Concordia plated multiple runs in four different innings, including three in the seventh to put things out of reach.
Erika Morris went five strong innings and struck out four while only allowing one run on four hits. The senior improved to 10-1 on the year in the circle.
Rae Flores and
Madison Urrutia each pitched one inning in relief to help shut the door and clinch the conference title.
Game 2: CUI 19, Holy Names 2 (5 innings)
The Eagles continued with a bang in game two as Sprinkle and Rohr hit back-to-back home runs to put CUI up immediately 3-0 in the first frame.
CUI led 7-0 before Holy Names even came up to bat after singles by Flatt,
Megan Massa and
Jasmine Gorman kept the line moving.
Gorman finished with a career-high four hits and scored three times.
Cortney Koelmans (8-0) and
Bella Calvo combined to limit the Hawks to only two runs over five innings.
Koelmans pitched the first three innings to qualify for the win and only allowed two hits. Calvo followed suit to close it out.
On Deck
The Eagles have just four more conference games remaining in their quest to go undefeated in PacWest play.
Senior Day will be held on Saturday, April 30 back at Eagles Field when CUI hosts Azusa Pacific to close out the PacWest
CLICK HERE for the full CUI softball schedule
