Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LA MIRADA, Calif. --- It was a special Saturday on the softball field for seniors Vanessa Coleman, CeCe Luster and Celina Thornton as it was senior day and the Eagles' final regular season home games.
 
It was an even bigger treat for Biola softball fans as the Eagles squared off with No. 1 Concordia for a doubleheader that would decide the fate of the Golden State Athletic Conference for the season.
 
The No. 1 Concordia squad ended up getting two wins by flexing their muscles early on and running into one in the afternoon contest to get 9-6 and 1-0 wins to complete the season-series sweep.
 
The good feelings stemming from the pregame senior day ceremonies were quickly turned to sour thoughts as Concordia opened the floodgates in the first inning of the early game, scoring all of their nine runs immediately.
 
After that outburst Biola's bats were tasked with staging a big comeback, and they slowly chipped away all game long, scoring three runs in the bottom of the third and the bottom of the sixth as they outscored Concordia 6-0 after the Irvine Eagles' early-inning outburst.
 
Heather Hall played a key role in that offense during the comeback attempt. She saw the ball well all game long and hit her sixth homerun of the season in a 2-for-4 performance. Her three RBI helped her notch a total of 12 RBI over her past five games, games in which she has been hitting on a torrid pace. She is also hit three homeruns during that span to double her season total.
 
"Ever since Heather's wrist has been hurting she has been smashing the ball," said Head Coach Lorie Coleman. "We don't know exactly why, but it's leveled out her swing and she is performing really well. She is coming up in key situations and producing runs for us."
 
Luster was thrown off balance by the nine runs in the first inning for No. 1 Concordia's powerful offense, but she was given a chance for redemption when she re-entered the circle after two shutout innings from Reba DePriest.
 
Luster pitched four shutout innings of her own to end the first game and help Biola stay close to the top team in the nation. She added a 2-for-4 performance at the dish to help even out the start to her senior day.
 
"I was proud of our team," said Coleman. "We were down nine runs after the first inning, but they never scored again when Reba came in and shut them down. Our girls fought to the last inning and I was so proud of their fight. CeCe also showed great character. She came back in the fourth inning and completely held them down."
 
Game two was just absolute beautiful softball on both sides and DePriest and Stevie Goldstein dueled to a 1-0 game.
 
DePriest was dominant throughout the afternoon, but was ultimately beat when she supplied all the pop to Annette Merjano's solo blast in the fourth inning.
 
Aside from that one mistake the junior hurler worked her way to 12 strikeouts while allowing just three hits to what is regarded as the best offense in the country.
 
Her second strikeout of the game was her 177^th of the season and officially set a new Biola Softball single-season record.
 
The Eagles offense could not get anything going all game long as they failed to use timely hitting to beat Goldstein. They did outhit Concordia, but could not outscore them.
 
The three seniors ended the day with six hits and a run scored.
 
The win moves Concordia to 41-5 (16-2 GSAC) and helped them lock up their third straight GSAC Championship, and the loss dropped the Eagles to 31-9 (12-6 GSAC), but they still are solid in second place in the conference.
 
"We need to work on putting hits together in a timely manner," said Coleman. "We need to fix out situational hitting and our sacrifice bunting. We need to stay positive and keep ourselves in the game."
 
The regular season will conclude with a road doubleheader at Hope International (14-30, 4-14 GSAC) on Tuesday.