IRVINE, Calif. – The two-time defending Conference Tournament champs began their quest for a third straight tourney title against Azusa Pacific on Thursday evening and loudly announced their presence.

Serving as the host school this week, Concordia University Irvine moved into the winner's side of the bracket in this double-elimination tournament with a 7-1 win over APU on day one.
It was a home run derby out there at Golden Eagles Field. The two teams combined for four home runs and thankfully for the Green and Gold, the home team smacked three of them.

APU struck first with a solo homer off the bat of Julia Doan. The Cougars led briefly 1-0 in the first inning until PacWest Newcomer of the Year Kayla Rodgers cranked a two-run homer over the left field fence in her first at-bat.

"We always say it's a domino effect when (Jessica) gets a hit and it gives me a confidence to get a pitch to hit and it just carried into the whole lineup which was super fun to watch," said Rodgers.

A few batters after Rodgers went oppo, senior Kayla Simpson worked a walk later in the inning with the bases loaded to force in Shelby Pfeiler and stretch the Concordia lead to 3-1 after the opening frame.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Golden Eagles got two aboard before Kayla Simpson strode back up to the plate. Before you could blink, Simpson sent a screamer towards the scoreboard and easily cleared the wall in left for a three-run blast to make it a 6-1 ball game.

Freshman shortstop Kaliya Yco added an exclamation point in the bottom of the fourth with a soaring solo home run that hit off the top of the left field scoreboard and made it 7-1. She joined Rodgers with two hits apiece in the victory.

Eight different CUI batters supplied at least one hit for the Golden Eagles. Rodgers added a neatly-placed bunt single for her second hit of the day. 

With some solid pitching and timely defense behind her, Kacie Gossett cruised to the victory and improved to 12-3 on the season. Gossett held APU to just seven hits and the one run.

She only had two strikeouts but pitched to contact and did not walk a batter aside from one hit-by-pitch. This was the eighth complete game for the true freshman, who was one of five CUI softball players to be named to one of the three All-PacWest Teams earlier this week.

"I thought we came out and responded really well on offense and it gave Kacie some confidence out there for her to get dialed in," said CUI head coach Crystal Rosenthal. "We passed the bat pretty well today and the energy was good," said Rosenthal.

CUI will now play top-seeded Biola on Thursday at 11 a.m. PT for a chance to reserve a spot in Friday's Championship Day.

CLICK HERE for the full CUI softball schedule

Meanwhile, Azusa Pacific will play Dominican at 2 p.m. PT in the first elimination game of the tournament on Thursday.

The second elimination game will feature the winner of the APU-Dominican contest and the loser of the CUI-Biola match on Thursday at 5 p.m. with the two surviving squads facing off Friday at noon.

CLICK HERE to go to Tournament Central for the PacWest Conference Championships