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 Chaminade (10-19, 7-15 PacWest) - Monday March 25 at 4pm and 6pm; vs Chaminade (10-19, 7-15 PacWest) - Tuesday, March 26 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: Biola hosted one of the strangest, most drawn out four-game series probably ever when it hosted four games against Hawaii Hilo over a three-game span last week. The series included about 50 runs scored, had lightning delays, a halted game, rain delays, injury delays and more but when all was said and done Biola managed to get three wins over the Vulcans to win the series. It was the second-straight PacWest series where the Eagles managed three of four. Areana Ramos hit her first three homeruns of the series and three Biola pitchers ended the week with 0.00 ERAs in a very interesting set of PacWest contests. Ramos and Kayla Neff both ended last week with six RBI spread across the four games. It's the second-consecutive six-RBI week for Neff. Her most important RBI came in game one of day two (game three of the series). She drove in Jennifer Morinishi with a walk-off hit that allowed the Eagles to take a 2-1 series advantage headed into the final game. Morinishi was one of three Eagles to tie for the team lead by scoring four runs last week (the team scored 25 total). Neff and Ramos were the other two with four. Tori Apodaca and Ruth Munoz both scored three a piece. Biola hit .310 as a team to raise its season batting average and prepare it well to bop in this coming series against Chaminade.

BIOLA (12-10, 7-5 PacWest) vs CHAMINADE (10-19, 7-15 PacWest): Monday & Tuesday March 25 & 26 at 4 p.m. (DH) \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
Chaminade comes to Biola riding the roughest stretch of its 2019 softball schedule. The Silverswords have lost eight in a row, and scored just four runs total in their two SoCal PacWest Conference series coming into today and tomorrow's doubleheaders at Biola. The 'Swords were blanked in a four-game set at Azusa Pacific to begin last week, but showed good signs of life at PacWest favorite Concordia Irvine in two competitive losses. This is the ninth all-time meeting between Biola and Chaminade and it's the fifth time the two teams have met in PacWest play, with Biola taking all four on the island last season. The Eagles have won their last seven meetings against the Silverswords, only losing the very first meeting between these two sides back in the 2003 season. Last year, Biola scored at least eight runs in three of the four contests (8-3, 9-7, 12-0). The most competitive game of the four-game set was the last game where Biola won 4-3. All runs in the game were scored in the first three innings before Biola brought in Kaile Chavez (2 innings) and Paige Austin (2 innings) to close out the one-run win. Biola comes into this weekend fresh off an important PacWest Conference series victory. The Eagles took three of four from Hawaii Pacific two weeks ago, took three of four from Hawaii Hilo last week and are looking for at least three of four from Chaminade this week to gear up for next week's Cornerstone Cup battle with Azusa Pacific. Biola's offense has been clicking recently, out-scoring HPU 18-10 and out-scoring UHH 25-23 in an explosive series. The Eagles hit four homeruns last week with three of them coming off the bat of Areana Ramos (who came into the week with no big blasts). Look for more offense this week as BU averages 10 runs-per-game against Chaminade in the all-time series.  

ON-BASE MACHINES: Kayla Neff and Jennifer Morinishi both come into this week riding hefty reached base streaks. Neff leads the team by reaching in 10-consecutive games and Morinishi is hot on her heels with nine in a row. Both streaks are the longest such streaks by any Eagle so far this season. The previous best was when Hailey Boyett had a streak of eight in a row from Feb. 15-23.

AREE IS BACK: Not only is she starting to heat up in the batter's box (three homers, four runs and six RBI last week), but Areana Ramos' presence in center field has raised the game of this whole Biola squad. Since she's been back Biola is 7-3. Before her return the team was 5-7 and just coming off a competitive but 0-2 series against top-10 team Concordia University Irvine. She hit .333, scored seven times, hit a homer and drove in three in Biola's four-game sweep of Chaminade last year, so look for her to produce this week.

UNEARNED: Three of the four pitchers who threw for Biola last week ended the week with 0.00 ERAs in a combined 12 innings of work. The three gave up a combined total of nine runs, but none of them were earned as BU once again had trouble on defense committing 11 errors in the series. Once again, at the end it was not too much harm done with the Eagles still winning the series, but these are the things that will need to be ironed out by the time the competition gets stiffer.

UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Hailey Boyett - 150 Games Played (128)
Hailey Boyett - 100 Hits (98)
Hailey Boyett - 400 Putouts (309)
Hailey Boyett - 75 RBI (58)
Andi Hormel - 175 Games Played (168)
Andi Hormel - 150 Hits (109)
Andi Hormel - 300 Assists (293)
Kayla Neff - 150 Hits (110)
Kayla Neff - 600 Putouts (519)
Kayla Neff - 75 RBI (65)
Missy Poti - 350 Putouts (331)
Areana Ramos - 150 Games Played (145)
Areana Ramos - 100 Runs Scored (77)
Areana Ramos - 150 Hits (126)
Areana Ramos - 30 Doubles (22)
Areana Ramos - 20 Homeruns (18)
Areana Ramos - 200 Putouts (155)
Areana Ramos - 30 Outfield Assists (27)

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 Azusa Pacific (12-12, 9-7 PacWest) - Saturday April 6 at 4pm and 6pm - FREE CHICK-FIL-A and Biola SGA Giveaway!