FULLERTON, Calif. --- Fourteen highly-questionable illegal pitch calls against first-game starter Kristin Larson and the lack of a clutch hit in game two led to a sweep at the hands of Hope International University by scores of 8-5 and 3-2 in eight innings in a GSAC doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon at Craig Regional Park.

The losses come on the heels of the biggest win of the season for the Eagles and drop them to 17-15 and to 7-9 in GSAC play. The Royals improve to 13-21 and pick up their first two GSAC victories to move to 2-14.

In one of the more bizarre scenes in recent memory, Larson was called for 14 illegal pitches--10 of which came with runners on base, allowing those baserunners to move up one base. Of those 14 calls by the base umpire, six came with a runner on third accounting for six of the Royals' eight runs. The odd part was that Larson had not been called for an illegal pitch in her previous time at Biola or in her ASA or high school career.

Hope was able to get two runs in the first inning as Kayla Uphold walked with one out, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Caitlin Angel. That was followed by a double by Shayna Alarcon, who would come around to score on illegal pitches No. 2 and 3.

The Royals would add three more in the second, the first two on illegal pitches and the final on an RBI single by Angel.

Biola tried to overcome the suspect calls with offense, but the bats just weren't responding. The Eagles got two runs back in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Lauren Gandy and an RBI single by Sara Smith. However, they could get no more in the the inning and wound up leaving two in scoring position.

In the bottom of the inning, Hope again scored two to go back up by five. The first two batters of the inning would reach base on Biola errors. The turnstile then was fired up as more illegal pitches brought both around to score with out a hit.

Biola would try to rally in the seventh inning. With one out, Morgan Facchini reached with a double down the left-field line. One out later, the Eagles got one back on an error by the Royals, followed by a walk and another error to plate another run. Still down four, Biola tacked on another with an RBI-single by Lyndsie Roberts but the run ran out as Hope managed to get the last out.

Larson, who had allowed just three runs in her last four outings--none of which were earned, was saddled with eight and six earned runs, despite allowing just four hits. She walked seven with two aided by illegal pitch calls when an out was about to be recorded, and struck out five.

In game two, the Eagles had numerous chances, but could not get the clutch hit they were looking for. Despite having runners on base in all but one inning, Biola managed just two runs and left a runner at third in each of the final three innings of the close game.

Biola got on the board first with two runs in the fourth. Krista Johnson led off with a single, and moved to third on back-to-back sacrifices. Facchini then drove her home with a double then came around to score herself on a Hope error. After another error put runners at first and third with two out, the Royals worked out of the jam by getting an infield pop out to end the threat.

Hope was able to get those two runs back on one swing of the bat in the sixth inning as Lyndsay Robillard hit a two-run shot to left-center field with two out in the inning.

Biola would load the bases with two outs in the top of the seventh, but were unable to get the run in. Then Hope had a chance to avoid extra innings in the bottom of the inning only to see Jillian Storm gun out the potential winning run at home to end the inning.

In the eighth, the Eagles were able to move the tiebreaker runner to third with one out, but two infield ground outs left her stranded at third.

Hope took advantage in its half of the inning, thanks to a single to left by Alarcan to bring home the tiebreaker runner and end the afternoon.

Roberts took the loss to fall to 9-7, allowing three runs on eight hits and striking out seven.

Biola takes a bit of a break over the next few weeks before returning to action on Saturday (Apr. 10) for a home doubleheader against NAIA No. 1-ranked California Baptist University at Freedom Field.