IRVINE, Calif. - The Golden Eagles dominated Academy of Art on back-to-back days both at the plate and in the circle to inch closer to securing the PacWest Conference regular season title.

No. 15 Concordia University Irvine received power hitting and strong powerful pitching performances against the Urban Knights on both Friday and Saturday.  In order to secure all four wins in the series, CUI put together a shutout victory in the first meeting each day, followed by a tighter contest that went the distance.

Coach Crystal Rosenthal's squad is now 37-9 and 22-4 in PacWest play.  CUI has won seven in a row and holds a commanding lead in first-place as the end to the regular season fast approaches.

FRIDAY
Game 1: CUI 7, ART U 0 
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Katlin Entrup tossed five shutout innings and only allowed three hits. She struck out six to add to her team-hight total of punchouts.

After Missy Nemeth plated the first run of the game in the bottom of the first on a RBI groundout, the bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth.

Moments after Mary Baccay smacked a RBI single, Sydney Sprinkle supplied a two-run base hit to push the CUI advantage to 5-0.

Cortney Koelmans closed it out with two scoreless frames.

Game 2: CUI 4, ART U 2
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Sydney Sprinkle and Rylie Rohr both absolutely obliterated a ball over the left-field fence early in this one to boost the offense in Friday's rematch. 

Sprinkle connected in the bottom of the first for a solo shot.  Rohr followed suit in her first at-bat in the second frame. 

Rohr leads the entire PacWest Conference by a large margin with 12 home runs this season. The closest person after her in the league is CUI teammate Shelby Pfeiler with six.

Kaia Nisby contributed a RBI bunt single to give CUI its third run of the game. Later, Mary Baccay added an insurance run in the sixth with a RBI single to left.

Daniela Alvarez (9-2) was fantastic in the circle once again and tossed five effective innings while allowing only one earned run. Callie Nunes came on to preserve the victory and earned her third save.

SATURDAY
Game 1: CUI 18, ART U 0

13 different Concordia batters earned at least one hit as CUI tallied its second-highest output of the year. 

Missy Nemeth cranked two homers and Shelli Faulk joined the party with a three-run blast of her own to the delight of the home crowd. It was Faulk's first homer of the season and third of her young collegiate career.  Nemeth now has four bombs this season.

Outfielders Megan Johnson and Megan Massa each helped the cause with two hits and Nemeth finished with five RBI.  Jocelyn Pino was locked in too and collected three hits and four RBI. The third baseman supplied a pair of two-run singles for the Green and Gold and scored three times.

Rae Flores and Bella Calvo combined for the shutout in the circle.

Game 2: CUI 5, ART U 1

Callie Nunes got the starting nod in the last game of the series and stepped up in a big way. She struck out eight and only walked two batters in five scoreless innings.

Nunes improved to 3-2 on the year and locked down career win No. 80 by pitching five solid innings.  She is now just one win away from tying the school record for most career victories for a softball pitcher (Natalie Brown - 81 victories).  

Kaia Nisby brought Pino home for the first run on an infield single to shortstop.  Sprinkle pushed the CUI lead to 3-0 with a two-run single in the fourth.

Rohr coerced another run home on a productive RBI groundout to make it 4-0 as both teams moved to the fifth.

Pino later sent Rohr to the plate with a RBI single in the sixth after ART U had just gotten on the board.

Koelmans again came on for the final two frames and struck out three herself to help close the door on the win and the series.

Dominican visits Irvine on Monday and Tuesday for the last two home doubleheaders of the regular season.  CUI has a chance to lock up the conference title for the fourth full season in a row (it would be the fifth straight first-place finish for CUI when including the pandemic-shortened 2021 spring season of PacWest pod play).

CLICK HERE for the updated CUI softball schedule