IRVINE, Calif. – To say Tuesday was a good day for the CUI softball team would be an understatement.
Senior
Katlin Entrup was named the PacWest Pitcher of the Week and first baseman
Missy Nemeth earned PacWest Player of the Week honors.
Then that duo went out with their teammates and helped contribute to a doubleheader sweep of the upstart Academy of Art Urban Knights. CUI improved to 6-0 in conference play and now has a seven-game winning streak.
On top of that, Concordia remained in the Top 25 of the NFCA DII rankings, sliding in at No. 24 after going 5-1 over the past week.
Game 1: No. 24 CUI 15, ART U 2
The opener of this four-game series featured a scoreless first inning, but none after that.
Jessica Im made a heads up play in right field in the top of the second inning. Im robbed one batter of a base hit by quickly throwing to
Missy Nemeth at first base for the rare 9-3 putout. That ended up being a big play because it saved a run. The next batter for ART U was Kayla Vaughan who promptly hit her first career home run to give the home team the early 1-0 lead.
After both teams traded runs, Concordia seized hold of the contest in the fourth inning.
First, Im smacked a RBI single to tie the game at 2-2. Then
Michalah Robison gave CUI the lead for good with a RBI single through the left side. Freshman
Audrey Robles promptly cranked a two-run single to center to keep everyone going station to station and make it 5-2 CUI.
Moments later, shortstop
Rylie Rohr cracked the game wide open with a three-run bomb over the fence. Rohr now has 39 career home runs, which puts her three away from tying (and four homers from breaking) the Concordia softball school record. Amanda Fama and Amy Eilefson share the record with 42 career home runs during their time at Concordia.
Not content with an 8-2 lead, the Golden Eagles picked up where they left off with
another seven-run inning in the top of the fifth. Six different players knocked in at least one run in that frame, and Robles provided another two-run single to give her 4 RBI on the afternoon.
With all that run support, Entrup and true freshman
Jayden Nishi combined to hold Academy of Art to only two runs in five frames. Entrup improved to 5-3 with the mercy rule victory and Nishi tossed a scoreless inning to close the deal.
Game 2: No. 24 CUI 6, ART U 4
In the second game, Concordia's offense was led by the top of the lineup.
Jessica Im started the rematch with a leadoff triple. She would come around to score on
Mary Baccay's immediate sacrifice fly.
With CUI holding a 2-0 lead in the fifth, Robles and Rohr provided clutch hits to expand the margin to 4-0. A sixth inning two-run double by
Missy Nemeth that scored her sister
Virginia Nemeth and catcher
Kendall Flatt made it 6-0.
Cortney Koelmans went four shutout innings to improve to 6-1 on the season. She allowed only three hits and struck out four.
Koelmans now boasts a measly 1.19 ERA.
Bella Calvo entered in the fifth and recorded the last six outs to complete the Tuesday sweep.
CUI now enters Wednesday a perfect 6-0 in league play atop the standings.
CLICK HERE for the updated PacWest softball standings
Next up for these two teams is another doubleheader in Hayward on Wednesday. The games moved there both days from Brisbane by Academy of Art to Cal State East Bay's home field to get the games in.
CLICK HERE for the updated CUI softball schedule
