LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The result may not have been what the Eagles wanted, but Biola Baseball finally got to jump into the 2019 season on Wednesday with its home opener against Hope International.

Head Coach Justin Duarte's group showed a few promising signs in the team's first action of the year. But it was evident that the Royals were sharp after having played countable games for the past two weeks, resulting in an 11-0 win for HIU.

Senior left-hander Troy Stainbrook got the opening day start for the Eagles and showed good command during his two innings of work. Stainbrook had four 0-2 counts and lived around the corners of the zone during the majority of his outing. But Hope International was able to capitalize on his one mistake of the game and hit a solo home run during its two-run second inning.

Newcomer Kenny Carillo followed Stainbrook with a heavy fastball-slider combination over his two innings. The junior righty induced three flyouts and picked up a swinging strikeout with his slider in the third inning to cement his swing and miss stuff. But it was evident that the Eagles' offense was having a hard time by the time Biola finished the fourth inning with a 4-0 deficit and Carillo on the mound.

Biola had a good chance in the second inning when Jackson Collins started the inning with a walk and was pushed to second by a single from Connor Kostecka. But the flyballs from the next two batters just couldn't find grass in the outfield and Biola came away empty after starting the inning with two on and no one out.

The Eagles would only get one more man to second base in the game and Kostecka's single would stand alone as their only base hit.

Freshmen Larson Kindreich and Brayden Englert both showed promise, particularly with the heater, as they carried the middle innings for Biola. Kindreich pitched a scoreless fifth inning with two punchouts before running into trouble in the sixth. Then Englert followed the Oregonian lefty by getting the Eagles to the eighth inning and retiring the last five men he faced in a row.

Englert's final line had him allowing just two hits and zero runs over 2.2 innings. He had just as many strikeouts as Josh Ludeman, who started off his 2019 season in fine fashion by striking out two Royals and preventing the opponent from reaching base in the ninth.

Biola will chalk this game up to progress in getting up to game speed as it heads into four more non-conference games next week. The Eagles return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Costa Mesa to take on Vanguard at 2 p.m.