Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LA MIRADA, Calif. --- It's getting to be crunch time for this 2016 Golden State Athletic Conference season, and it is the time when the playoff picture really begins to solidify.
 
Nothing got made any clearer after Tuesday's doubleheader between Biola and Hope International as the two teams split games on a sunny afternoon at Freedom Field. Biola squeaked out a 5-4 win in game one before HIU dominated the second contest in a 7-0 victory.
 
Game one was where all the excitement was at as the two teams had dueling pitchers throughout. Hope International seemed to have the advantage in that category as their starter, Frances Campoy, was managing the Eagles' lineup with relative ease through the first 4+ innings.
 
Biola did not get its first hit of the ballgame until the third inning, at which point the Royals had already built a 2-0 lead. The Eagles had just three hits through four innings until finally the offense broke out a bit in the fifth with another three hits and a run, which helped the Eagles begin coming back from what was now a 3-0 HIU lead.
 
With one out in the bottom of the fifth inning Andi Hormel got a single to begin a stretch of back-to-back-to-back hits from Biola's 1-2-3 hitters that loaded the bases against Campoy. Missy Poti took advantage of the situation and hit a sacrifice fly to score Hormel and get the Eagles on the board.
 
The bottom of the sixth inning is where the real damage was done though, as Biola piled on four runs on five hits against Campoy to take a 5-3 lead. Campoy had been getting the Eagles to hit weak groundouts all game long up until that point when Biola's hitters began putting just a little lift under the ball for a lot of hits into the shallow outfield to get some runners on base.
 
It was not little hits, but rather back-to-back two-out doubles from Bria Madrid and Heather Hall, that created the run production. The seniors got the runners moving around the bases to steal a lead in a game that never truly felt like it was Biola's to win.
 
But, win is what the team did as Kaile Chavez induced a flyout to left field to end the game in the top of the seventh after HIU had loaded the bases and already pushed one run across to tighten things to 5-4.
 
Game two was not a total loss, despite the misleading 7-0 score line. The Eagles actually had the advantage through the first third of the game as Terri Van Dagens began the game with two dominant perfect innings and the Royals' starter, Alyssa Felipe, could not find the strike zone whatsoever.
 
Unfortunately for Biola that tide changed a bit as the game went along. The Royals opened the scoring with an unearned run off of a sacrifice fly in the third inning and then extended their lead with a pair of three-run homeruns in the fifth and sixth innings.
 
Those little outbursts made the difference as Biola's offense could only scrape out two hits and six total base runners against Felipe (5 innings) and Alejandra Guillen (2 innings).
 
Bit of an oddity in that second game too is that the Eagles used all five pitchers on their roster in an attempt to find an advantage against the Royals.
 
At the end of the day Biola moves to 17-21-1 (4-9 GSAC) while Hope International remains even at 21-18 (7-7 GSAC). Biola is back at Freedom Field on Thursday (April 7) for two non-conference games with Antelope Valley.  Biola is 2-0 against the Pioneers this season.