LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Softball gets back to PacWest Conference competition this week and has its first true conference road trip of the year. The Eagles are set to play four games against Holy Names Friday and Sunday of this week. Rain caused the original Thursday DH to be pushed to Sunday.

THIS WEEK: at Holy Names (1-4) - Friday, March 1 at 12pm and 2pm; at Holy Names (1-4) - Sunday, March 3 at 12pm and 2pm (all games played at Cottrell Field at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif.)

MULTIMEDIA: Live video and live stats will be provided free of charge for all Biola home contests. Information on live video and live stats made available for road games will be listed along with the previews of those games below.

TICKETS: Biola home events are always free to Biola students, staff, faculty and alumni. Children 12 and under are also always free. General admission is $6 and discounted tickets for opposing school students, guests under 18 and seniors are $4. See ticketing information for road contests below each preview below.

ABOUT LAST WEEK: Biola Softball has a much better idea of the type of team it has after last week. The Eagles had their first PacWest Conference competition and had to face the best, No. 9 Concordia Irvine. Biola was in both games before suffering a 3-0 loss in game one (stranding four runners on base) and a 5-4 loss in game two (took CUI hitting a walk-off HR in the seventh inning). Biola got fantastic pitching throughout the week from Paula Damas and Paige Austin, which was not an area of strength the previous week. Head Coach Nikki Udria assessed their performance as them being fully warmed up and ready to go now. She believes they will stay locked in for the remainder of the season now. Damas has already thrown about 60 percent of her total innings from last year and held batters to just six hits in 10+ innings of work last week. Austin has a 1.75 ERA through her first two weeks of work, sitting third in the PacWest in that category. Biola also showed it could hit the long ball AND also play small ball last week. All of its runs in the two games against Concordia came courtesy the big fly. All of its runs in the doubleheader sweep of Adelphi came from moving runners along and stringing base hits together. Biola had just four walks last week, while its batters struck out 15 times, so look for improvement in that area.

BIOLA (5-7, 0-2 PacWest) at HOLY NAMES (1-4, 0-0 PacWest): Friday & Sunday March 1 & 3 at 12 p.m. (DH) \\ Live Stats \\ No Live Video (if they can get it working, follow @BiolaAthletics on Twitter and we'll share the link)
Biola is 10-1 all-time against Holy Names, including a 2-0 mark against the Hawks last season in Biola's first NCAA Division II/PacWest Conference season. The Eagles are looking for their first PacWest wins of the season and are also looking to get back above .500 overall with positive results in this series. Biola has won four in a row vs. HNU, with its last loss against the Hawks coming all the way back in 2011. The Eagles outscored the Hawks 18-7 in their doubleheader sweep over HNU last season (4-1, 14-6). Holy Names had the last two weeks off before playing two against CSU Monterey Bay on Tuesday. The Hawks lost both against the Otters, dropping game one 3-0 before getting run-ruled in game two (11-2). Holy Names' one win this year was an 8-7 defeat of Sonoma State back on Feb. 12. HNU scored four in the sixth inning to answer back to a SSU five-run fifth and win the game. Freshman utility player Cassidy Simon has been the Hawks' best player so far this season, hitting .467 while scoring twice and driving in two as a part of a Hawks team that averages just 2.4 runs-per-game.

HOLY NAMES TICKETING INFORMATION | ST. MARY'S CAMPUS MAP | ST. MARY'S PARKING INFORMATION

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE: Biola has been a good offensive team through its first 12 games of the season, but it has not been a GREAT offensive team. Part of that is due to some missing pieces on offense, but part of it could just be the team is missing opportunities. The Eagles are second-to-last in the PacWest in walks taken (18) and fourth in strikeouts (41). Biola batters are just 17-for-90 (.188) this season with two-strike counts, striking out about 40 percent of the time with two strikes. Head Coach Nikki Udria will be emphasizing her hitters allowing fewer two-strike counts by taking a more aggressive approach in the box in the coming weeks.  

ALL OVER THE FIELD: Biola batters have been good about using the whole field so far this season, with three batters in particular leading the charge in that area. Hailey Boyett, Kayla Neff and Kylie Velasco have been spreading their hits around the diamond with great consistency. Each member of that trio has no more than three of their hits going to any one location in the outfield while recording hits in at least five of the seven zones (left line, left field, left center, center field, right center, right field and right line). Boyett has been especially good, with her hits landing in six of the seven zones. She just needs to push one down the right-field line to hit number seven.

SUPER UTILITY: Unlike last season when she played all around the field, Ruth Munoz has started all 12 games of this season at third base. However, she's been as much of a utility player in her ability to fill in and be productive all up and down the lineup. Munoz has hit in five different places in the order this season, including leadoff, fifth and seventh. She is most regularly in the seven-hole (six starts) and is hitting .467 with three runs scored and three RBI out of that spot. It's been her most productive spot in all three categories. Biola's most productive spot overall has been the cleanup spot, with batters combining to hit .425 in that spot with eight runs scored and six RBI. Boyett has been there the most (six starts) and accounts for half those runs scored and all six RBI. She's hitting .600 in the cleanup spot this year.

TWO-OUT FORCE: Jennifer Morinishi has had an interesting start to the year at the plate. The freshman has been the Eagles' leadoff hitter in 11 of the first 12 games of the season. She's reaching base just 23 percent of the time in leadoff situations (5-of-21), but she's been ultra-effective when she comes up with two outs in an inning (6-of-10) and leads the team with six two-out RBI. Maybe it's time to look into a little shuffle up of the lineup to maximize the production from the mighty center fielder.

RECORD WATCH: Last season, Areana Ramos hit nine homeruns which was more than double her previous single-season best. It was just two homeruns shy of the program's single-season homerun record held by Lyndsie Roberts (2011). If she gets the big fly working early on this year, look for her to be able to make a push for that mark. Her 15 career homeruns is 11 behind the program record of 26. So, if it happens, her 12th homerun would break both the single-season and career mark. The PacWest had three players with at least 12 homeruns last season. Ramos has a bit of a late start, since she's been injured and is still looking for her first ABs of the year and we're already almost a month in. Ramos is also in the top-5 in career slugging percentage. She's had 38 extra-base hits in her career and enters the year with a .549 slugging percentage. The program record is Amerra Kesterson's (.631). Kesterson played for BU from 2004-07. Paige Austin held opponents to just a .196 batting average last season. It's just the third time in program history a pitcher has held batters to a mark under .200. No Biola pitcher has ever had two such seasons. Austin has a chance at being the first to accomplish that this year. Andi Hormel spent a lot of time icing her first two seasons at BU. She was hit by 23 pitches during her freshman and sophomore campaigns. That mark slowed a bit with just three HBP last year. But, if she finds her way on base via plunking at least four times this season, she'd become the third player in program history with 30+ hit-by-pitch bases. Kayla Neff comes into the year just two sacrifice flies shy of the all-time record of nine. She had five SF last year and should be able to pass record-holder Selina Sherlin (9) this year.

UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Hailey Boyett - 150 Games Played (118)
Hailey Boyett - 100 Hits (89)
Hailey Boyett - 300 Putouts (281)
Hailey Boyett - 75 RBI (55)
Andi Hormel - 175 Games Played (158)
Andi Hormel - 150 Hits (106)
Andi Hormel - 300 Assists (280)
Kayla Neff - 100 Hits (94)
Kayla Neff - 500 Putouts (467)
Kayla Neff - 75 RBI (53)
Missy Poti - 300 Putouts (301)
Areana Ramos - 150 Games Played (135)
Areana Ramos - 100 Runs Scored (71)
Areana Ramos - 150 Hits (119)
Areana Ramos - 30 Doubles (21)
Areana Ramos - 20 Homeruns (15)
Areana Ramos - 200 Putouts (148)
Areana Ramos - 30 Outfield Assists (26)

GETTING TO KNOW YOU: Biola has a brand new coaching staff this season as Head Coach Nikki Udria begins her first season at the helm for BU. Along with Udria is assistant Justine McLean. Though young, the staff has a wealth of big-time experience as Udria and McLean have NCAA Division I roots (Oregon/Florida). Udria was on the staff last year as an assistant coach under Lorie Coleman, taking over for Janie Takeda who took a job at the University of Oklahoma. Udria played four years at the University of Oregon before graduating in 2017. She led the Ducks to four postseason appearances and three Pac-12 Championships while earning major accolades all four years of her career. In 2017 she was an NFCA NCAA Division I First Team All-American. McLean is from Rancho Cucamonga, but she played her college ball for the Florida Gators the same time Udria was at Oregon. McLean earned All-SEC honors and made the Women's College World Series all-tournament team, while helping the Gators to a 229-36 overall record between 2014-17. The Gators won the Women's College World Series her freshman and sophomore seasons. In addition to their regular coaching duties, both regularly host camps/clinics throughout the year. View those at this camp link.

NEXT WEEK: at Academy of Art (2-3, 2-0 PacWest) - Monday & Tuesday March 4-5 at 10 a.m. & 12 p.m.