EASLEY, S.C. --- The No. 1 Biola Eagles did not blow their opponents out of the water on Wednesday, but they did their job in earning two victories and that is all one can really expect in the grind of a six-game tournament.

After wrapping up their win over Concordia Ann Arbor at 1:00 a.m. local time, the Eagles went to bed with one win standing between them and a berth in Friday's semifinals. As the No. 1 seed, both of Biola's final two games in pool play will come on Thursday, when it faces No. 9 Bluefield College at 12:00 p.m. (PT) and No. 4 Southwestern Christian University at 3:00 p.m. (PT). Both games will be played at Easley High School and can be followed with the links provided on the Biola Athletics home page.

The natural hope is that Biola would get the win it needs in the first game it plays on Thursday. No. 9 Bluefield is 27-22 and is 0-1 in this tournament after losing to Southwestern Christian 6-4 on Wednesday. But the Rams played their opponent very close and this World Series has already seen the bottom seed in Pool B earn an upset win, as No. 10 Hiwassee College defeated No. 3 Campbellsville 4-3.

Biola will have to be on its game to make sure Bluefield does not do the same, as the Rams only played once yesterday and have the majority of their bullpen arms fresh and ready to go coming into their first game on Thursday against No. 8 Ottawa (Ariz.). Starter Caleb Newman went seven innings for BC in their opener, allowing three runs in the eighth as he was nearing 100 pitches and running out of gas. But the two relievers that came after him made a combined 11 pitches to get six outs, so the Rams can come at the Eagles full force if they want to.

Offensively, Bluefielder is led by Jose Perez, who went 2-for-4 in the game of the World Series and is hitting .448 on the year with 12 stolen bases. Leadoff hitter Baley Castro had three hits in the opener and is hitting .338 while Joshua Magee provides the team's power with 14 homeruns and 54 RBI's.

The Rams score a lot of runs, averaging 7.76 runs per contest. But their pitching staff has an ERA of just under 7.00, so they tend to give up a number of runs too.

Should the Eagles get a win over Bluefield, the matchup with Southwestern Christian might be a practice in illusion as neither Biola nor SWCU would want to show their hand to a potential finals opponent. The SWCU Eagles are also 2-0 and were carried by two complete games on Wednesday from their No. 1 and No. 2 starters. Junior Juan Carlos Gonzalez allowed a first-inning single to Concordia Ann Arbor in his start but only allowed one other to reach base thereafter and struckout eight batters.

Southwestern Christian has five batters who have 17 extra-base hits or more and is batting .317 as a team. The only blemish on their resume is that they went 3-12 this season against top-25 NAIA opponents and lost out in the NCCAA Central Region Tournament.  

Make sure to check for regular updates to the Biola Athletics Twitter account, as inclement weather projected to hit Easley on Thursday can impact game times.