LA MIRADA, Calif. – Saturday proved to be a rare day on the diamond for the nationally-ranked Concordia University Irvine softball team.
No. 9 CUI went toe-to-toe with Biola in their last road doubleheader of the regular season. Despite multiple solid pitching performances from both teams, the Eagles wearing Red and Black shutout the Eagles wearing Green and Gold in back-to-back contests.
Despite suffering its first two losses of the entire conference season,
CUI has already clinched its third PacWest Conference title and is still a stunning 28-2 in conference play. Concordia began the year with a 36-0 overall record and won its first 28 consecutive PacWest games.
Owners of a 42-7 overall record entering the final week of April, Concordia also is ranked in the Top 2 of the current NCAA DI West regional rankings with the playoffs just around the corner.
Game 1: Biola 2, CUI 0
Recently named PacWest Player of the Week Sydney Sprinkle broke up Biola pitcher Paige Austin's no-hit bid with a single in the fourth inning.
Michalah Robison and
Lauren Lopez supplied back-to-back singles in the fifth but were unable to come around to score.
Shelli Faulk lined out to center and Biola was able to get a double play to end the threat.
Cortney Koelmans tossed four shutout innings out of the bullpen. The sophomore struck out two and only allowed one hit on the day.
Rae Flores pitched the first two innings and allowed only a RBI double to each of the Nowak sisters.
Game 2: Biola 3, CUI 0
Pitchers
Katlin Entrup and
Erika Morris limited Biola to only four hits over the course of game two.
The CUI offense also collected four hits but was unable to plate any runs.
Michalah Robison led the offense with a pair of singles.
Megan Massa connected for a base hit in the top of the seventh inning to try and start a rally but Biola was able to finish the inning unscathed.
CUI has a chance to tie its personal school record of 30 wins in PacWest Conference play on Senior Day this coming Saturday, April 30 against Azusa Pacific. The doubleheader begins at 12 p.m. with the seniors to be honored shortly before that around 11:45 a.m.
The Eagles previously went 30-3 in PacWest Conference play during the historic 2019 season in which CUI hosted and won the sub regional and advanced to the super regional against UC San Diego.
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