IRVINE, Calif. – For the second straight year, your Concordia University Irvine softball team is both the regular season champions
AND the PacWest Conference Tournament champions!
Facing Azusa Pacific on Friday, a combination of clutch hitting, timely defense and a sharp outing by starting pitcher
Katlin Entrup helped propel the Golden Eagles to an impressive 10-2 victory and tournament crown.
The victory also secured the automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA DII West Regional.
Entrup was named Most Outstanding Pitcher of the tournament after tossing a complete game and limiting APU to only two runs.
Catcher
Shelby Pfeiler was the Tournament MVP for the second straight time after a great week at the plate. Pfeiler contributed a RBI single to make it 2-0 Concordia before the end of the first frame. She had already homered
in Wednesday's win over Biola and again
went yard in Thursday's win over APU.
Senior
Kaia Nisby picked a great time to smash her second career home run. The First Team All-Conference selection walloped a pitch over the wall for a grand slam in the fourth inning to give CUI some serious separation. The Golden Eagles led 7-1 after four frames and never looked back.
First baseman
Missy Nemeth opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first that scored PacWest Freshman of the Year
Jessica Im.
After giving up a solo homer to Ally Montesino, Entrup responded with back-to-back strikeouts to keep CUI in front 2-1 after two frames. The Claremont, Calif. native then knocked down a liner up the middle and threw to first from the circle for the third out to escape further trouble.
There were some fantastic defensive plays by the Concordia fielders behind her too.
Entrup got out of a two-on and two-out jam to end a Cougars rally in the third. Nemeth made a great dig on a nifty play by shortstop
Rylie Rohr for a key out in the bottom of the third.
Then with the potential tying run on third base, Rohr prevented APU from scoring by coming across the second base bag to field a dangerous grounder and throw to first just in time to end the inning.
In the sixth, Im made a spectacular running grab to deny a double from dropping in the gap. A few batters later, CUI shortstop
Rylie Rohr robbed Summer Quinones of a base hit and then doubled off a runner at first base with a strong throw to
Missy Nemeth to end the sixth.
Michalah Robison added a two-run blast over the fence for some extra insurance in the top of the seventh to cap the scoring for Concordia.
CUI ranks No. 3 in the newly released NCAA DII West Regional rankings behind only GNAC leaders Western Washington and Northwest Nazarene. APU ranks No. 9 currently with the top eight making the regional bracket.
The top eight teams make the regional tournament, with the three conference winners from the PacWest, GNAC and CCAA, all securing the automatic bids and five more teams joining them as at-large selections. The announcement of the regional brackets will come this Monday at 7 a.m. PT.
CLICK HERE for the updated CUI softball schedule
CLICK HERE to go to the PacWest Tournament Central page
CLICK HERE for info on NCAA DII Regional Playoffs!
