IRVINE, Calif. – Strong pitching performances dominated the day for all four teams at the NCAA DII West Regional in Irvine, and that included the top-seeded Concordia Golden Eagles who topped Biola 4-0 in their first game of the tournament.

PacWest Newcomer of the Year Daniela Alvarez tossed a complete game shutout and limited Biola to only two hits while amassing a season-high 10 strikeouts.  No. 11 Concordia received a big boost from catcher Shelby Pfeiler as well, who not only worked a great game with Alvarez but also contributed three clutch hits.

Concordia jumped on the board in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a mighty swing by senior Missy Nemeth.  The Glendora native parked a solo home run over the left field wall and cleared the trees near the CUI batting cages.

Later in the inning, Jasmine Gorman scored on a wild pitch to double the Concordia lead to 2-0.

Biola threatened with two runners in scoring position in the top of the fifth, but Alvarez and the defense behind her were able to snuff out the rally. A grounder to Mary Baccay was easily flipped to first baseman Sydney Sprinkle for the third out of the inning.

Pinch-runner Madison Urrutia did a good job moving on the base paths and scored another insurance run for CUI when Rylie Rohr reached on an error in the fifth.  A couple pitches later, Rohr came around as well after Pfeiler deposited a RBI double in shallow right field.

Alvarez made it look easy all afternoon, guiding Concordia the rest of the way and securing the 4-0 victory.

CLICK HERE for the updated CUI softball schedule

CUI will face No. 4 seed Northwest Nazarene in the first game on Friday at 11 a.m. PT followed by Biola and Cal State San Bernardino. 

Northwest Nazarene and CSUSB opened the regional with an epic extra inning affair. NNU ultimately prevailed 1-0 when Kellcia Adams provided a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to propel the Nighthawks in to the side of the bracket that - for now - does not involve an elimination situation.

The Yotes and Eagles will face off in the first elimination game at 1:30 p.m. on Friday after CUI and NNU face each other.

The surviving team will turn right around and play another elimination game against the loser of that CUI-NNU contest.

The two remaining teams play Saturday to decide who advances to the Super Regional next Thursday.

CLICK HERE for Tournament Central page for the NCAA DII West Regional

NOT TO BE LOST IN ALL THE HOOPLA

In addition to all the excitement of the regional tournament getting underway in town, CUI pitcher Katlin Entrup and third baseman Jocelyn Pino were voted NFCA First Team All-Region selections this week. 

Outfielder Megan Massa was also voted Second Team All-Region by NFCA coaches.

That trio was part of an amazing 11 All-PacWest Selections by the conference.  Pino, Entrup, Massa and also first baseman Sydney Sprinkle were named First Team All-PacWest.  Alvarez joined second baseman Mary Baccay, shortstop Rylie Rohr and catcher Shelby Pfeiler on the Second Team All-Conference squad.

Center fielder Kaia Nisby and pitcher Rae Flores both made Third Team.  Entrup was named PacWest Pitcher of the Year, the aforementioned Alvarez was deemed PacWest Newcomer of the Year and head coach Crystal Rosenthal was named Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season