LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Softball is the second seed in the Golden State Athletic Conference Softball Tournament, which begins play Thursday, April 30, and runs through Saturday, May 2. The tournament is hosted by the No. 1 seed, Concordia, and every game is held at CU Softball Field on their Irvine campus. Biola's first game of the tournament is at 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning. The tournament winner receives an automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament. If the winner of the tournament is the regular season champion (Concordia), than the runner-up recieves the automatic berth.
 
TICKET INFO
General Admission tickets are $10. GSAC student tickets are $5. High school students and under tickets are $5. Tickets are sold on a per-day basis.

 
MEDIA
All games of the tournament will be broadcast by the host school. Any Biola game that is broadcast live can be accessed at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/biola/. Check the "Upcoming Events" section at http://athletics.biola.edu/ to get live stat and live video links on game day. If, due to extrenuating circumstances, there are no live stats or video offered, Biola will have updates through its Twitter handle (@BiolaAthletics).
 
TOURNAMENT NOTES
Biola enters the GSAC Softball tournament as the No. 2 seed for the second season in a row, as Concordia comes in as the No. 1 team after locking up their fourth GSAC Regular Season Championship in as many years. Biola went 2-2 in last year's tournament, losing a first round matchup with San Diego Christian before beating Hope International and then San Diego Christian to earn a spot in the championship against CUI. The Eagles lost 5-0 to Concordia, but still made the national tournament with an at-large bid. 
 
Biola finished its regular-season on a high note with a doubleheader sweep at Vanguard, who was rated and ranked higher than the Eagles at the time. Those two victories secured the No. 2 seed for Biola and helped propel the team two spots up the national rankings to No. 18 overall. A great tournament run and an automatic bid to the national tournament would be a great stress reliever for the Eagles, who would need to rely on their national ranking to get them an at-large bid if their could not secure an automatic bid.
 
The Eagles' first round matchup will be against the winner of the No. 3-seed Vanguard and No. 6-seed San Diego Christian. Biola is 2-2 against the Lions this season with two losses in early GSAC play and the two aforementioned wins. Biola outscored Vanguard 10-9 over the course of the four meetings. The Eagles are 41-53 all-time against the Lions. Biola was also 2-2 against San Diego Christian this season, splitting at home and on the road against the Hawks. The Eagles also hold the scoring advantage in that season-series, scoring 17 runs and holding the Hawks to 13 in the four games. Biola is 6-4 all-time against the Hawks, including last season's 1-1 record against them in the tournament.
 
As the No. 2 seed Biola has a first round bye and could win the tournament with as few as three games played or as many as five games in the books. If Biola wins its first game (against VUSC/SDC) it would advance to face the winner of Concordia's first contest on Friday afternoon, battling for a spot in the tournament Championship. A game one loss would mean they would need to win two more games to get out of the consolation bracket and make it into the tournament championship, where they'd need to win two games against the winning team from the winner's bracket.

The other two teams in the six-team torunament are No. 5-seed William Jessup and No. 4-seed Simpson. Neither team was in this tournament in 2014, but Biola did face Simpson twice in the 2013 tournament, losing both times. The Eagles hold a 4-5 all-time mark against the Red Hawks and a 7-7 mark against the Warriors.

Biola plays the best small ball in the tournament, leading the teams in sacrifice hits (42) and fielding percentage (.952), making the fewest errors in the conference this season. The other obvious strength of this team is its pitching, second in the GSAC in ERA (2.07), walks allowed (97) and opponent's batting average (.213) and leading the way in strikeouts (353) and fewest hit-by-pitches (10).

The tournament could come down to another head-to-head battle between the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds, in which case Concordia would have the offensive advantage with the conference player of the year on their bench and Biola would have the pitching advantage with the conference pitcher of the year in the circle. Look for a few surprises in Head Coach Lorie Coleman's lineup and defensive alignment throughout the tournament as she continues to battle a small roster with a growing list of physical concerns.
 
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