Box Score
WALESKA, Ga. --- It is finished, for now. Biola had to play more games than it was hoping for on Tuesday, but eventually earned its spot in the Reinhardt Bracket Championship on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over Taylor in an afternoon contest.
 
No. 12 Biola lost to No. 9 Reinhardt earlier in the day to force another contest in the hot, sticky Georgia sun, and Taylor earned a spot in this qualifier game immediately following a 4-3 extra-inning win over Georgetown.
 
It was a matchup of two teams who were tired and heated, but extremely motivated to win, and it made for some interesting softball.
 
Following Biola's 10-5 loss to Reinhardt Head Coach Lorie Coleman knew that strong pitching and effective, error-free defense would be key to getting a quick and relatively painless win, and that is exactly what her team gave her.
 
CeCe Luster put forth a fantastic effort from the circle to give the Eagles a strong advantage, after she went five innings of work and faced just three more batters than the minimum.

She allowed one run in the bottom of the first, but it was the only scuff on her record in the afternoon game as she seemed motivated to put the Trojans away for good.
 
While she was in the circle, the Eagles bats got to work, with a boost from an errant throw from Taylor's starter, Hannah Klebesadel. Her throwing error was followed by a run-scoring wild pitch and a subsequent groundout that essentially won the game for the Eagles in the top of the second inning as they took a 2-1 lead.
 
"We did a better job of getting balls on the ground, as well as getting runners into scoring position," said Coleman. "Almost everyone on the team contributed, because the heat is so exhausting that we really need our bench to help provide energy."
 
They earned two more runs in the fifth, including one off the bat of Celina Thornton, who is known more for her 27 sacrifice hits on the season than her big RBI stick, but she got the job done this afternoon as she increased Biola's margin to 4-1 headed into the Trojans' final nine offensive outs.
 
"They walked CeCe to get to Celina and she jumped on the pitch and drove it into right field, which turned out to be huge for us," said Coleman. "She is normally a mover, so to step up and drive in that run on the stage was big."
 
After Biola got this lead Reba DePriest got another chance in the circle in order to give Luster a much-earned break. She twirled the ball in the zone with much more consistency than in the opener and allowed just two base runners over her two scoreless innings of work to earn her fifth save of the season.
 
In addition to the improvements made in the circle, Biola's defense vastly improved in this afternoon game. There was not a single error, wild pitch or passed ball on Biola's side of the box score, as opposed to five in the Eagles' previous two contests in this bracket.
 
"We had to step it up on defense in this game so that we could keep our pitchers in the dugout and out of the heat," said Coleman.
 
The win puts Biola in position to qualify for the NAIA Softball World Series final site for the second time in program history. They square off with the host school, No. 9 Reinhardt, tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. The Eagles need to defeat Reinhardt twice in order to advance, while the Lady Eagles of Reinhardt can punch their tickets and eliminate Biola with just one victory.
 
"If we can just pull out a win in the first game tomorrow we know we are going to force our way though," said Coleman. "We just need to be prepared to score runs and pitch like we did in this game."
 
For more information on the tournament click here.