ALEXANDRIA, La. --- The biggest game of the season is here. No. 1 and No. 2 seeds square off in the winner's bracket semifinal as No. 2 LSU Alexandria and No. 18 Biola go head-to-head.
 
Biola defeated Belhaven (Miss.) 2-0 on Monday to earn its spot in this game, while the hosting Generals hammered Kansas Wesleyan, 15-0, in its first outing of this NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.
 
The Eagles enter play with an overall record of 35-18, while LSUA comes in with a 48-3 mark.
 
These two programs have never met before and have polar opposite strengths. Biola, of course, relies on its shut-down pitching and small ball, while the Generals bash the ball all over the park and setup scoring situations with a relentless running game.
 
LSUA enters play riding a 39-game winning streak, but has not faced a team ranked inside of the NAIA Top-25 Coaches' Poll since March 1. The Generals are 4-3 against ranked teams in this 2015 season.
 
Biola's longest winning streak is just seven games, but it has faced a whole different level of competition throughout the year, including facing two ranked teams in its conference tournament. The Eagles are 9-9 against ranked opponents in 2015.
 
The Generals looked as strong as advertised in their run-rule victory yesterday afternoon. They scored early and never let up against a vastly outmatched Kansas Wesleyan team. They got five innings of one-hit ball from their starter, Kaycee Spears, and they had five players with multiple hits, including No. 9 hitter, Paulean Gonzalez, who was 3-for-3 with two runs scored and six RBI.
 
LSU Alexandria didn't have as much in motion in the running game as they usually do, only swiping one bag in the five-inning game, but their 16 hits made it easy for them to move around the bags naturally.
 
Biola relied heavily on Reba DePriest in its win, and she had no problem with the Belhaven lineup. She allowed just three hits in a complete game shutout, splitting three scoreless innings before a four-hour rain delay and four scoreless innings after.
 
While LSUA entered opening round play at the top of nearly every statistical category they rank near the bottom in pitching strikeouts and strikeouts-per-game. DePriest and the Eagles, of course, are at the very top of those categories.
 
That simple difference has a chance to make a huge impact in this game, as the key to shutting down this Generals team is keeping its pesky runners off the base paths. DePriest is by far the best pitcher this LSUA team has had to face this season, so if Biola can take advantage of the early innings while they're still trying to adjust to her and score some runs we could be in for a very exciting ball game.
 
The winner of this one needs to win just one more game to advance to the NAIA Softball World Series in Sioux City, Iowa and has the rest of the night off. The loser plays again later this afternoon against the winner of the Belhaven vs. Kansas Wesleyan contest.

Live stats of this game, which begins at 10:00 a.m. PT, can be viewed at http://www.dakstats.com/WebSync/Pages/Webcasts.aspx?association=10. Live video is available for $8.95 at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/lsua/.