Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LA MIRADA, Calif. --- A win is good, two wins is great, but a three-game series sweep sure is the sweetest. That's exactly what Biola Baseball earned in its set with Providence Christian on Saturday by taking away the final two games of the series with 4-2 and 17-1 victories.
 
"We came in with the expectation of doing what we did, winning three games, but at the same time you need to stay in the moment and play well," said Head Coach Jay Sullenger. "The other team did a good job, their guy (in game one) came out and was throwing well and gave us some trouble scoring."
 
That difficulty scoring led to a bit of a tense battle in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader on a toasty day out at Eagles Diamond. The Sea Beggars' starter, Dylan Chavez, threw all eight innings and had some good stuff that forced the Eagles' hitters to revert to manufacturing runs. He held the Eagles' 3-4-5-6 hitters to 0-for-14 in the opener.
 
All four of Biola's runs in game one came in four separate one-run innings. Two came by way of the long ball and Sam Thorne and Jerron Largusa added to their season tallies, and the other two came on a sacrifice fly and a single.
 
The minimal offense for Biola was good enough to get the win because of a great combined pitching performance from Gabe Ihrig and Buddy Brouwer. Ihrig recorded a quality start by going 5.2 innings and holding Providence Christian to just two runs.
 
"When you get a quality start it gives you a chance to be in the game," said Sullenger. "That's exactly what we've gotten the last four games this week."
 
When he was removed from the game and replaced with Brouwer the game was tied and two, so Brouwer, rather than Ihrig, would be the one to get credit for the win. Buddy definitely earned that win when the Eagles' dominant reliever came in with the bases loaded and got an inning-ending strikeout as he buckled the knees of the first batter he faced.
 
Alec de Watteville hit a sacrifice fly to score Andres Rodriguez in the bottom of that inning to put the Eagles back in front and the rest was history as Biola recorded its 20^th win of the season with that game one victory.

Game two was a very different story as Biola's offense was in charge right out of the gates. Biola scored once in the first, once in the second, six in the third and nine in the sixth to pile onto the now 6-32 Providence Christian ball club.
 
Combine that offensive effort with another fantastic pitching performance, this time from Daniel Jang, and it looks as if this successful Eagles' team is here to stay. Jang threw five innings of two-hit ball and held the Sea Beggars off the board to earn his fourth win of the season.
 
Biola had 14 different players reach base via a hit, walk or hit-by-pitch in game two. It was an incredibly successful outing for the bats up and down the order as Sullenger had a chance to get into his bench a little bit.
 
The Eagles' 17 runs scored on a combined 15 hits, one Sea Beggar error, six walks and three hit-by-pitches. Sam Thorne went 2-for-2, JD Meyer went 3-for-4, Jimmy Gallarda went 2-for-2 and Anj Bourgeois, Kalani Nakamura, Daniel Rasmussen and Tim Glenn all had a chance to get base hits.
 
The most damage came in the bottom of the sixth as the Biola bats immediately did a whole lot of damage to relief pitcher Tyler Marona. Marona, a former NCAA DI football player for Syracuse, could not retire a single batter in the sixth as he allowed four hits, walked three, hit two and balked home a run in a tough nine-run outing.
 
Sean Rothfuss and Thorne combined to pitch the sixth and seventh innings of the seven-inning contest for the Eagles. Rothfuss allowed a single run in the sixth and Thorne struck out two and held the Sea Beggars scoreless to shut the door in the seventh.
 
"We did just enough to win the first game and then we did it all in the second game," said Sullenger. "It was a good weekend and a good day, especially to see everybody get involved and get some success."
 
Biola's now won four games in a row and finds itself in fourth place in the Golden State Athletic Conference standings after Menlo College got swept by Hope International this weekend. The Eagles are now 21-18 overall and will continue their season with a home series against San Diego Christian on April 8-9.