Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 COSTA MESA, Calif. --- To say that Saturday's doubleheader at Vanguard was the most important two games of the 2016 regular season would be a vast understatement. The Eagles came into Saturday's battle with the No. 13 Lions stuck in a tie for fifth in the Golden State Athletic Conference standings.
 
The importance of that fifth spot in the standings is that it is the final team to make it into the GSAC Tournament, which this Eagles team desperately desired to achieve after turning around a 5-14 start to the season and becoming one of the most competitive teams in the conference.
 
With a 10-4 win in game one of Saturday's doubleheader, and a 5-4 loss by San Diego Christian in its first game against Hope International, Biola clinched a spot in that postseason tournament for the first time since the 2012 season.
 
The Eagles dropped the second game of the day when Vanguard managed a 4-3 walk-off win, but it did not matter much as the team knew it was still moving on thanks to its 15-15 conference mark and the fact that it owned the head-to-head tiebreaker against San Diego Christian.
 
"It was a difficult week for the team leading up to this weekend, but this team continues to demonstrate toughness as it answers the bell in big moments like it did today," said Head Coach Jay Sullenger.
 
Knowing the importance of a win early in the day the Eagles' offense exploded immediately against Vanguard's starter in game one. Biola sent eight men to the plate in the top of the first inning and worked four runs to hand a huge lead to Jimmy Gallarda as he went out to the bump with the weight of the entire season on his shoulders.
 
Gallarda came through once again for Sullenger and the squad as he threw seven full innings and allowed just two runs to cross the plate. Vanguard is a team that averages 6.6 runs-per-game this season and plated 10 runs against Biola on Friday afternoon.
 
The script got flipped during the early game today as Biola managed 10 runs on eight hits, two Lions errors and five walks issued by the VUSC pitching staff. Gallarda limited free bases given to the Vanguard hitters as he walked just one in seven innings and managed to work around three errors by his own defense.
 
"Gallarda threw well yet again," said Sullenger. "He has pitched better in each of his starts. We needed a big start and we got one."
 
The offense from the Eagles came in spurts as they scored four in the first and then not again until they plated one in the eighth and five in the ninth to blow the game open.
 
Rawley Hughes hit in the three-hole and had two RBI. Andres Rodriguez scored twice in the leadoff spot, and outside of that Biola spread its offense around with nine other players recording a run or RBI. The team was quite sacrificial as they clamored to get what would be the playoff-clinching win. They posted four different sacrifices in the game one win.
 
"Hughes stepped up to play solid behind the plate as well as in managing the staff," said Sullenger. "He also had quite a few big at-bats this weekend."
 
Game two was closer than any other game this series as Gabe Ihrig and Vanguard's Tyler Steele battled to try to lead their team to the series win. Ihrig went five strong innings and allowed just three runs to the Lions, but unfortunately his offense cooled off considerably and could only manage single runs in both the second and third innings in support of Ihrig.
 
That left the game as a bullpen battle over the final two innings as the pitchers handed the ball over to start the sixth with the Lions clinging to a 3-2 lead.
 
Biola was down to its final out when Rodriguez managed a single to right field that scored Sean McCarrell and tied the game at three. That would be all the offense Biola could muster though as a strikeout ended the inning and gave the Lions a chance to win it in their half of the final inning.
 
Vanguard employed small ball against Buddy Brouwer to turn a leadoff walk into a two-out run that won them the game by way of walk-off.
 
Even with that loss this season still goes down as the most successful Biola Baseball year since 2012 as the team finishes with a winning regular season record (28-25) and a .500 conference record (15-15) for the first time in four years.
 
Biola will be the No. 5 seed in the GSAC Tournament, which begins May 9 at Westmont College.