IRVINE, Calif. – For the third straight year, Concordia University Irvine softball emerged as the tournament winner of the PacWest Conference Championships!
CUI collected a 12-5 win Friday to top Azusa Pacific University and earn the league's automatic bid into the 2025 NCAA DII Regional Tournament.
This marks the seventh straight time that CUI is heading to the regional tournament.
In Friday's PacWest Championship Game, sophomore
Jessica Im provided three doubles,
Gabby Villa had two timely hits and 3 RBI and the offense put up a crooked number in four of the first five innings to pull away from the Cougars.
Villa provided a spark with a two-run single to put CUI up 6-5 in the third. Senior outfielder
Kayla Simpson later slapped a two-run single off the third base bag to make it 9-5 in the bottom of the fourth.
"Coming into this tournament, we had a really rough couple of weeks, but we had a different focus this week," said CUI head coach Crystal Rosenthal. "Our offense really stepped up. It was gratifying to be able to win these final games on this field for our seniors."
Shelby Pfeiler also contributed two hits and shortstop
Kaliya Yco was sensational defensively. All the Concordia pitchers had success getting the APU hitters to hit grounders, and many of them headed to Yco throughout the afternoon. The CUI outfielders also did a solid job all week, limiting extra base hits from opponents.
Azusa Pacific's Julian Doan hit a home run in the first inning and finished with four homers in the tournament. Doan was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player after collecting eight hits and four homers and batting over .500 in the tournament.
CUI freshman
Kacie Gossett was tabbed as the Tournament Most Outstanding Pitcher after earning a win and a save earlier in the tournament. She helped get the first five outs in this contest as well, before
Kira Morris and
Jayden Nishi took their turn to help the cause.
Morris went 1.1 innings in relief to earn the victory and Nishi earned a save by pitching effectively out of the bullpen for four frames. It was a solid team effort for the Green and Gold as they head into graduation weekend with the excitement of another trip to the postseason on the horizon.
Concordia will find out its seed, opponents and location this Monday, May 5 at 7 a.m. PT when the NCAA DII Softball Selection Show is unveiled at NCAA.com.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI softball schedule
The Golden Eagles were ranked seventh in the west region this week after being ranked fifth the previous Tuesday.
Potential destinations include Northern California (Cal State East Bay or San Francisco State), Cal State San Marcos and Western Washington.
"We are excited to go wherever they send us next week," added Rosenthal. "We are just excited to be together and get to play on."
