Combining strong pitching with timely and efficient hitting has come sparingly this season for the Eagles. With hopes of going against that grain, the Eagles struggled to do so against the William Woods Owls and Hope International Royals.
Owls bring out the brooms
After being shutout by William Woods University in game one, the Eagles had an offensive slug-off with the Owls in game two, ending in an extra innings loss. Biola bounced back nicely on April 5 in game one against Golden State Athletic Conference foes Hope International by using a four-run sixth inning to prevail, but did not follow through in game two as they were shutout by dominant Royal pitching.
After an uneventful and discouraging 0-7 shutout by the Owls, the Eagles managed to muster up enough morale to keep game two close in an offensively dictated extra inning thriller. The Eagles went back and forth with the Owls, tying the game up three times in the middle innings. Despite the Eagles’ fight, the Owls put up a six run ninth that hammered the nail in the coffin for Biola.
GSAC thriller, shutout
On April 5, Biola looked to make up ground in the GSAC standings as they faced Hope International. The day started off with a bang but all emotions were altered by the end of the day.
In game one, the Eagles were down 1-3 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. With the game on the line and runners in scoring position, senior third baseman Heather Hall launched a double through center field to knot the game at three all. Two batters later, fellow senior catcher Bria Madrid came in clutch, hitting a screaming two-run double through centerfield as well. The result — a 5-4 come-from-behind win for the Eagles, aided by strong pitching, especially from junior pitcher Kimmy Triolo’s strong outing that earned her the win.
In game two, the Eagles could not follow up their strong performance as they were blanked for the second time in four games. The Eagles were held to only two hits the entire game.
“Game two just lacked execution,” Triolo said. “In the first game we had timely hitting and made some awesome plays on defense, but it just didn't come together as well as we hoped the second time around.”
Hopes slowly fading
With winning only one out of the four games this week, Biola’s hopes for playing postseason ball become more of an abstract concept than a reachable goal.
Even with the season winding down with the standings not on the Eagles’ side, Biola still has a lot of positive aspects to take away from their recent struggles.
“We love each other and we have a lot of fun, so that's not a problem, but now we are just working on our fight, and playing for each other and especially our seniors,” Triolo said. “The more we win, the longer their final season will be and spending just one more game on the field with them is important to us.”
Biola’s next matchup will be against the non-conference University of Antelope Valley Pioneers Thursday April 7 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
