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Scoreboard

Christian Hammar throwing a baseball
George Rodriguez
4
Bluefield BLUE 27-24
14
Winner Biola University BU-BASE 33-21
Bluefield BLUE
27-24
4
Final
14
Biola University BU-BASE
33-21
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Bluefield BLUE 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 4 8 1
Biola University BU-BASE 3 3 2 0 1 1 4 14 11 1

W: Hammar, Christian (1-3) L: Harris (3-5)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Brandon Taylor, Assistant Sports Information Director

Eagles Clinch Spot in Semis

Biola smashes it way into the NCCAA World Series semifinals with three homeruns and a 14-4 win over No. 9 Bluefield College.

EASLEY, S.C. --- After the No. 1-seeded Biola Eagles squeaked out a 5-4 win over No. 5 Concordia Ann Arbor at 1:00 a.m. Thursday, Head Coach Jay Sullenger said his team would have to rise to the challenge posed to them by No. 9 Bluefield on Thursday afternoon.

The Eagles did everything their head coach asked and more, successfully navigating the fatigue and the potential emotional letdown of facing the pool's lowest seed to earn a 14-4 run-rule win.

Biola (33-21) becomes the first three-win team in the 10-team field and secures its qualification for the semifinals of the NCCAA World Series on Friday. A game time and opponent are to be determined as the qualifiers from Pool B will not be finalized until sometime on Friday.

"It's great to see us come out the gate [in the first inning] and swing the bats like that right away," said Head Coach Jay Sullenger. " River got us started and you could feel the momentum build after that. It was also great to see Hammar have a good outing and to only make one mistake in a park this size."

Thanks to scoring immediately out of the gate, Biola was able to save its pitchers' two innings of work and end their first game of the day early by using the 10-run mercy rule that is active during pool play. The Eagles tried to see if they could catch lightning in a bottle by batting River Fawley leadoff and the senior provided a spark with solo homer to left.

Jacob Portaro immediately followed up with a homerun of his own to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead just six pitches into the contest and Biola was well on its way to taking command of the game.

The Eagles would build their lead to 8-0 after three innings as they simply took advantage of Bluefield's numerous mistakes. Following Phil Knapp's single to begin the second inning, Biola would score three times in the frame without a hit. Five of BU's first eight runs came via wild pitch or passed ball and starter Christian Hammar was not about to let them get away with that.

Hammar earned his first win of the season after starting the game with three scoreless innings and going five in total. His did have a miscue in the fourth when he allowed a three-run homerun. But the Eagles lead was still 8-3 after Oscar Torres' roundtripper and Hammar's teammates got the runs right back.

Biola would score six runs over the final three innings to secure the mercy-rule victory. Ryan Gallegos hit a solo shot for his 10th homerun of the year and the Eagles got singles from Tyler Piston and Joey Magro to wrap things up in the bottom of the seventh.

"It was exciting to see that we've qualified for the next round. That's obviously the initial goal when you get into pool play," said Sullenger. "It was a good game overall and that what we wanted to see. Now we want to parlay that into our second game tonight."

The Eagles take on No. 4 Southwestern Christian University on Thursday night for the final game of pool play.
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