The Eagles’ incredible Golden State Athletic Conference playoff run finally came to an end when a pair of home runs proved not enough for Biola to beat The Master’s College Mustangs in the final game of the championship series.
A slow start
“A highlight of the season was putting Biola baseball back to what it once was,” said Jimmy Gallarda, junior starting pitcher. “We had a couple of down years, but to have a winning record to end the season signifies that we are headed back in the right direction.”
After winning the first three games of the season, the Eagles lost six in a row and dropped to 3-6. Despite snapping their losing streak with their fourth win of the season, Biola struggled as they went 10-10 through their next 20 games with two four-game losing streaks.
With the playoffs still in reach, the Eagles shot up to fourth place after going 14-4 up until their last two series of the season. It was during that stretch when the Eagles won the deciding series against the San Diego Christian College Hawks, which acted as the tiebreaker and allowed them to move on into the conference tournament.
Comeback kids
“In the second half of the season, we starting winning ballgames that we should win, as opposed to the first half where we were losing games we should have won,” Gallarda said.
The Eagles took one game against the Vanguard University Lions, but it was enough to finish with a 15-15 conference record and move on to the playoffs.
As the fifth seed team, the Eagles were the clear underdog entering the playoffs. However, Biola blew past the first three rounds of the tournament, hitting six home runs and scoring 11 total runs. Biola’s momentum faltered as they lost the championship opener to the Mustangs, forcing a deciding final game.
With their first-ever conference championship on the line, junior second baseman JD Meyer gave the Eagles an early 2-0 lead with a two-run home run. The Mustangs chipped away at their deficit with a run in the top of the second and extended their lead with a monstrous four-run inning in the top of the third.
The Eagles managed to regain the lead with a four-run inning of their own in the bottom of the fourth, brought about by a bases-clearing triple from freshman centerfielder Jerron Largusa. Largusa later scored off a throwing error by the Mustangs’ shortstop, giving the Eagles a 6-5 lead.
After the Mustangs tied the game in the sixth, junior rightfielder Jeremy Barth hit a go-ahead home run in the bottom of the eighth and the Eagles took their 7-6 lead into the ninth.
Falling short
However, one swing of the bat won the game for the Mustangs as they hit a go-ahead two-run home run off sophomore left-handed pitcher Daniel Jang. Since the Mustangs scored two more insurance runs in the ninth, the Eagles could not regain the lead and lost the game and the championship 7-10.
“It’s not that we did not have good pitching, we just ran out of starting pitchers,” Gallarda said. “When you get to that point in the tournament, you are just trying to piece things together and our arms were not as fresh.”
Despite losing out on their chance for the championship, Biola can look back on the year with pride. They ended the season 31-27, the first time since 2011 they finished with 30-plus wins, and made their first playoff appearance since 2012. Not only did they appear in the playoffs, they advanced to the championship series before losing a postseason game.
