IRVINE, Calif. – Both Mother Nature and the Holy Names Hawks could not stop the nationally-ranked Concordia Golden Eagles softball team on Saturday.

No. 12 Concordia University Irvine dodged an upset bid by the visiting Hawks in game one of their doubleheader thanks to a near-perfect pitching performance by Katlin Entrup.  The Dani-Dani connection in game two also dominated as PacWest Pitcher of the Week Daniela Alvarez and catcher Dani Cole tag-teamed to limit Holy Names to only five hits and one run in their seven innings together.

The first-place Golden Eagles improved to 12-2 in PacWest play and 22-6 overall.  After the Golden Eagles went 10-2 on the recent Hawaii road trip, CUI has now won 14 of its last 16 contests dating back to its last home doubleheader sweep of San Francisco State.

Game 1: CUI 1, HNU 0

An impressive pitching duel took both teams into extra innings after seven scoreless frames.

Michalah Robison supplied the difference-maker with a key hit in the bottom of the eighth that plated the game-winning run.  Robison smacked the ball to left field which got past the diving outfielder and all the way to the wall. That allowed Mary Baccay to come all the way around for the walk-off win.

Entrup (9-2) notched a career-high 14 strikeouts in the circle teaming up with catcher Shelby Pfeiler. She lived on the outside corner and earned a ton of called third strikes by consistently getting a piece of the plate to fool the HNU hitters.

Her 14 strikeouts were three off the school record of 17 in one game. That has happened twice with Natalie Brown and then most recently by Katie Cotta ten years ago in a game against Biola in 2013.

"Me and Shelby were locked in before the game even started," explained Entrup.  "We had a really good warm up and I felt super fresh and loose coming into this game. My curve was on today and she did an awesome job of receiving it and getting strikes for me."
 
Hawks pitcher Giana Quintanar tossed 6.1 scoreless innings and reliever Megan Yorba helped her get out of a one-out jam in the bottom of the seventh.  CUI put two runners on and had pinch-runner Alina Giles in scoring position but the Hawks were able to prolong the contest by getting two outs and stranding the runners.

Game 2: CUI 5, HNU 1

In the rematch, Daniela Alvarez tossed a complete game and had a shutout going into the final inning.  She struck out six and did not walk a batter.  Her catcher Dani Cole also had two hits to help the offense.
 
After a triple by Rylie Rohr in the second inning, Sydney Sprinkle brought her home with a RBI double to open the scoring. That led to a three-run frame that put CUI ahead to stay.
 
Sprinkle finished with a team-high three hits on the day along with centerfielder Kaia Nisby.  All three of Nisby's base knocks came in game two and she also scored once and brought in a run.
 
CUI first baseman Missy Nemeth added a two-run single in the fifth to pad the lead.
 
"The team was SO thankful to get these games in," added Entrup. "We even double-tarped the field so that it was playable! Being on the road for 12 games isn't easy and I know I was so thankful to be back on the home mound. We have done a good job at making adjustments offensively and that's exactly what they did as the day went on. Proud of the battery that we had today between me and Shelb as well as Dani A. and Dani Cole. I'm proud of the defense for constantly picking me up and I'm really proud of the clutch offense!"
 
The Golden Eagles host Pace University on Monday, March 13 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Those two games were originally planned to be on Tuesday but were moved up 24 hours to get ahead of expected rain.

CLICK HERE for the full CUI softball schedule