LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The second of three-consecutive weeks at home against Hawaii schools comes this week as Biola Softball plays host to the visiting Hawaii Hilo Vulcans on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

THIS WEEK: vs Hawaii Hilo (16-4, 11-1 PacWest) - Tuesday March 19 at 4pm and 6pm; vs Hawaii Hilo (16-4, 11-1 PacWest) - Wednesday, March 20 at 4pm and 6pm

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: The Eagles got off to a 3-1 start to their streak of 12-consecutive games against Hawaii. Biola took the first three games of the four-game set against Hawaii Pacific before falling in the second game of the series' second day. Biola got a tremendous offensive performance out of Kayla Neff, who hit almost .800 on the week and doubled her season RBI tally. It also saw Paige Austin have another fantastic week in the circle, picking up two wins and hurling a pair of complete game shutouts. The three wins helped BU pull back to even .500 all around at 9-9 overall and 4-4 in PacWest play. The Eagles outscored the Sharks 18-10 for the series and 12-2 in the trio of wins.

BIOLA (9-9, 4-4 PacWest) vs HAWAII PACIFIC (16-4, 11-1 PacWest): Tuesday & Wednesday March 19 & 20 at 4 p.m. (DH) \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
Through the first month or so of the PacWest Conference season, Hawaii Hilo has been the second-most successful at getting games played and also the second-most successful in getting games won. From the standpoint of winning percentage the Vulcans are tops in the league among teams with at least five games played. Their sparkling 11-1 PacWest mark gives them the second-most conference wins overall, but it comes with a big lead in the loss column over the team with the most wins, Hawaii Pacific (14-7). There's still a wide range of number of games played amongst the conference teams making the standings a bit difficult to decipher, but it's very clear that these Vulcans are in the race for the conference title (at least at this point). Hawaii Hilo's only conference loss was a 10-6 game against Holy Names. Aside from that the team won all other games in four-game sets against HNU, Dominican and Notre Dame de Namur. Biola will be the first series for UHH against a team that ended the 2018 season with a winning record in conference. It should be a tight battle. The Vulcans will come into play Tuesday having won six in a row. Strangely, this will be their first true road series of the 2019 season. UHH has built its impressive record by out-scoring its opponents 125-58 throughout its first 20 games of the year. That's 6.25 runs scored on a per-game basis and just 2.9 runs-per-game allowed. Three different pitchers have gone for at least 27 innings so far this season, but the Vulcans' best has been senior Isabelle Mejia. She leads the staff with 50 innings and has compiled a 7-0 record and 1.82 earned run average with the lowest WHIP (0.96) on staff. Mejia is also a relatively big part of what UHH accomplishes on offense, hitting almost .300 with seven extra-base hits and a 16 runs either scored or driven in. Hilo's offense is really driven by the pair of Markie Okamoto and Kiarra Lincoln. Those two have combined for 39 hits, 32 RBI and 32 runs scored to this point in the season. Biola is 0-2 all-time against Hawaii Hilo, with the Vulcans handing the Eagles their only two losses of the 2018 Hawaii trip, a 2-0 game one loss and 4-3 game two score. If those games were any indication, we should be in for one intense series this week as both teams have improved from last year.

WEEKLY HONORS: Biola boasts the reigning PacWest Player of the Week in Kayla Neff AND the reigning PacWest Pitcher of the Week in Paige Austin. The two Eagles helped Biola immensely in its 3-1 series win over Hawaii Pacific to earn the conference honors. Read more about their performance and the past week in the conference at the PacWest website. Austin was 2-0 with a pair of complete game shutouts against HPU last week. She will look to replicate that performance against a UHH team that managed two runs in five innings against her last season.

MORE-inishi: Head Coach Nikki Udria has been quicker to turn to freshman sensation Jennifer Morinishi in recent weeks. The first-year Eagle was called upon to pitch 8.2 innings last week, which is by far the most she's pitched in a conference series so far this year. Her number was called regularly in the Eagles' eight-game week of preseason play, but hadn't been used as much in PacWest play until a week ago. She proved the volume of use to be effective, lowering her season ERA by over one full point with effective pitching last week.

AT THE TOP: After hitting nearly .800 last week Kayla Neff is now tied for the conference lead in batting average. The junior is hitting .407 on the season, which knots her with APU's Cayla Broussard and Chaminade's Marlisa Berrelleza at the top of the conference. Berrelleza joined Neff and Austin as the third conference award-winner this past week - winning Freshman of the Week. In addition to being at the top in BA, Neff currently leads all conference players with five homeruns. Kylie Velasco is right behind her in a four-way tie for second with four big flies. Paige Austin is battling CUI's Callie Nunes for the top spot in the conference in most pitching categories. However, Austin has the outright lead in one obscure category - home runs allowed. Austin is the only pitcher in the PacWest Conference to have allowed ZERO homeruns this season.

A CLEAN SHEET: Biola's defense had a seven-error game their last time out. That's the highest number of errors in a single game by this team since back in April 2015 when the team had a 10-error game at Azusa Pacific. The Eagles went all of last season with no games of more than three errors. They ended the year top-5 in the 12-team conference in fielding percentage (.962). So far this season the team's got a .951 mark that's seventh in the now 10-team conference. This will be an area of focus in practice under coach Udria, who made the Pac-12 All-Defensive team during her time as an Oregon Duck. Thankfully, the defense has not been the direct result of too many runs this season as BU's allowed just 17 unearned runs, which is about average among conference teams.

UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Hailey Boyett - 150 Games Played (124)
Hailey Boyett - 100 Hits (92)
Hailey Boyett - 300 Putouts (297)
Hailey Boyett - 75 RBI (56)
Andi Hormel - 175 Games Played (164)
Andi Hormel - 150 Hits (107)
Andi Hormel - 300 Assists (289)
Kayla Neff - 150 Hits (106)
Kayla Neff - 500 Putouts (491)
Kayla Neff - 75 RBI (59)
Missy Poti - 350 Putouts (320)
Areana Ramos - 150 Games Played (141)
Areana Ramos - 100 Runs Scored (73)
Areana Ramos - 150 Hits (122)
Areana Ramos - 30 Doubles (22)
Areana Ramos - 20 Homeruns (15)
Areana Ramos - 200 Putouts (152)
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. Kristin Halte recently re-joined the Biola coaching staff as the team's pitching coach. She was on staff under Head Coach Lorie Coleman from 2012-16 and returns this year to help the Eagles' talented young pitching staff.

NEXT WEEK: vs Chaminade (10-11, 7-7 PacWest) - Monday March 25 at 4pm and 6pm; vs Chaminade (10-11, 7-7 PacWest) - Tuesday, March 26 at 4pm and 6pm