Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Under the heat from another bright, shining sunny day in La Mirada Biola Baseball sizzled on its senior day in claiming a pair of important Golden State Athletic Conference wins over the Menlo Oaks.
 
After a late Biola letdown in yesterday's ballgame left these two programs tied in the conference standings today's doubleheader took on a whole new light as both teams had a chance to make a statement late in the season. Saturday's 14-10 and 4-0 victories are exactly what Head Coach Jay Sullenger's Eagles needed to prove they had the staying power in this playoff race.
 
"The guys showed up today after a great game yesterday and bad inning," said Sullenger. " The offense won the first one today and pitching the second, as Micah (Beyer) looked like the Micah of the fall."
 
With the wins the Eagles climbed into a tie with The Master's College for third place in the GSAC standings with two GSAC series left to play. Third is the prime spot for Biola in the current conference landscape as Biola and TMC find themselves 4.5 games back from the second-place team, No. 11 Vanguard.
 
Now here's a little about today's ballgames.
 
They were very, very different affairs as the Eagles had to scratch and claw to a 14-10 lead in a first game with 24 runs on a combined 36 hits, but then things settled down and Biola rode an excellent pitching performance from Micah Beyer to its 4-0 win in the seven-inning second game.
 
Biola took the lead in the sixth inning of game one as it broke a 7-7 tie with a seven-run inning. Those seven runs would be the last runs that the Eagles would score in the ballgame, but it was enough to outlast the three runs Menlo would get over the course of the final three innings.
 
Sullenger saved his bullpen in the back-and-forth game in the opener as he rode Jimmy Gallarda through the first five innings and then had Daniel Jang throw 80 pitches as he earned the win by pitching the last four innings of the ballgame.
 
The saving of the bullpen was presumably so that he could use whoever he needed to in relief of Beyer in game two of the day, but as it turned out he didn't need anyone but Beyer as the sophomore was dominant from the get go in holding the Oaks scoreless and to just two hits.
 
Biola combined for 22 hits between its two victories, with Jeremy Barth and Sam Thorne providing nine of those between them. Barth was a scorching 4-for-4 in game one and was hit by a pitch as he reached base in each of his plate appearances. Through the first two games of this series the junior right fielder was 7-for-9 with six RBI and a run scored as he raised his season batting average to .320.
 
Thorne hit his fifth homerun of the year in game one. He went 5-for-8 in today's doubleheader with an incredible five RBI and three runs scored.
 
Andres Rodriguez, JD Meyer, Jerron Largusa and Jonas Wellan also each had one multi-hit game during the final day of play at Eagles Diamond for the 2016 season.
 
In game two the Eagles only logged five hits as they plated their four runs, but they did not really have to do a whole lot of hitting to get runs across against a less than characteristic performance from the Menlo starter, Ashkhon Kuhaulua. Kuhaulua went five innings and walked six as he threw 45 percent of his 116 pitches out of the strike zone.
 
He also hit two batters as the Eagles worked one run in the fourth, one run in the fifth and two more in the sixth to build the lead as Beyer continued to just keep humming along on the mound.
 
Beyer struck out eight batters in his seven innings of work. That gave him one more strikeout than Kuhaulua, who came into his outing today leading the GSAC with an average of 11.91 strikeouts-per-game.
 
"Very proud of the way these guys responded to the collapse yesterday in the 9th with more great baseball today," said Sullenger. "Learning how to win big games on big stages happens through getting knocked down and having the courage to get back up. We did that as a team today!"
 
The pair of victories helped the Eagles improve to 26-20 on the season and 14-10 in GSAC play. Menlo falls to 29-18 overall and 12-12 against conference opponents in 2016.
 
Biola ends its regular season schedule with seven road games in a row, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. game against Providence Christian College on April 19.
 
Between games today Biola honored its five seniors in their final season of eligibility: Eugene Shin, Andres Rodriguez, Eric Diomartich, Sean Rothfuss and Aaron Chavez.