WEST COVINA, Calif. --- If the innings were played with only two outs Biola Softball would've been in real good shape in game two on Friday. Unfortunately, there's three outs needed and William Jessup was really good a two-out hitting today. That two-out production helped the Warriors to a 9-4 victory to spoil Biola's hopes of a GSAC sweep.
The game began on a big sour note as WJU crushed a two-out grand slam in the very first inning to jump out to an almost immediate 4-0 lead.
Biola's offense answered back quickly in the bottom half with three runs of their own. The big blow was Areana Ramos' first homerun of the 2018 season. She had two outs and two strikes on her, but the center fielder was unfazed and turned on one to hit it about 20 feet beyond the left field fence. Ramos would go 2-for-3 in the game, giving her two hits in both games today and upping her season batting average to .533.
The score held at 4-3 until the fifth inning as Kaile Chavez and WJU's Shebi Graifman dualed. A big moment that had potential for some good positive momentum for BU came in the top of the third inning. Chavez was dealing with runners on first and third with no outs when she induced a line-drive double play and weak groundout to get out of the jam without any damage.
The top of the fifth saw the one-run game get extended to a three-run differential as Jessup's slugging first baseman hit a two-run homer. Once again the damage came with two outs in the inning.
After that Biola's offense was stuck playing behind the eight ball for the final three innings. There was a ton of pressure to make up the difference, but nothing was coming together for Head Coach Lorie Coleman's hitters.
The Eagles managed to scrape one more across in the bottom of the sixth inning on the merit of an error from the William Jessup third baseman, but that would be all they could produce for the rest of the game.
Graifman is well known as the GSAC's best pitcher and for the most part, aside from the one mistake pitch to Ramos, she looked it today. She ended up going the distance to get her fourth win of the season and hand Biola it's second loss.
She was also a big part of the offense, as she was the one who got a two-out, two-strike single to keep the fifth inning alive for her teammate to hit the important homerun to make it a three-run game.
Paige Austin was able to set her down quickly to start the top of the seventh, but then things got dicey as WJU plated two more to extend the lead further. That gave the Warriors five runs over the final three innings of play.
Ramos had two hits, but as a team Biola only managed four hits against the dominant Graifman. That was one-third of what they managed in the morning games today and seven fewer than their season-average of 11 hits-per-game.
So, the Eagles will pus this one to the back of their memory banks and move on to the next contests. Biola hosts Hope International this coming Thursday at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The Royals are off to a hot start to the season with a 7-0 record. They also had a pitcher throw a perfect game earlier this week.
As always, you can catch the games at Freedom Field or you can watch online at portal.stretchinternet.com/biola.
