LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The chalk is down, new uniforms have arrived, freshmen are ready to go - IT'S OPENING WEEK! Biola Softball gets back to action this weekend to begin its 2020 season and is looking to improve it's PacWest Conference win total for a second-straight season.
The Eagles went 16-16 in PacWest play in 2018 to finish seventh. They improved to 19-11 last season, finishing in a four-way tie for second-fewest losses in conference play.
The PacWest Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll comes out later this week and will predict what the head coaches around the league think of Head Coach Nikki Udria's 2020 squad.
Biola returns PacWest Conference Player of the Year Kayla Neff (sr./c) and also has All-PacWest players Paige Austin (jr./p) and Ruth Munoz (jr./3b) back on the squad.
The Eagles begin their season at the Concordia Kick-Off Classic, hosted at
Great Park in Irvine, California from Friday through Sunday.
THIS WEEK: vs Stanislaus State (0-0; 23-32 in 2019) - Friday January 31 at 10 a.m.;
vs CSU East Bay (0-0; 12-36 in 2019) - Friday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m.;
vs CSU Dominguez Hills (0-0; 27-19 in 2019) - Saturday, February 1 at 10 a.m.;
vs #21 Chico State (0-0; 31-17 in 2019) - Saturday, February 1 at 3 p.m.;
vs CSU San Marcos (0-0; 14-31 in 2019) - Sunday, February 2 at 12:30 p.m.
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/tournament 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.
BIOLA (0-0, 28-17 in 2019) vs STANISLAUS STATE (0-0, 23-32 in 2019): Friday January 31 at 10 a.m. \\
Live Stats \\
Tickets \\
at Great Park Irvine \\
Tournament Website
This 2020 season-opener will mark the first-ever meeting between Biola and Stanislaus State. The Eagles will travel to Turlock later in the season, where they will get more familiar with Stan State by participating in the Warriors' own tournament, the Tournament of Champions. Biola plays four games in that tourney, but will not have a repeat matchup against Stanislaus State. The Warriors went 23-32 in 2019 to finish eighth in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Stanislaus State was recently selected by the coaches of the CCAA to finish eighth again this year. The Warriors return their top offensive player from the 2019 squad, junior OF/3B
Aliyah Garvin. Garvin is an all-conference player who hit .311 and led the team with 14 extra-base hits and 24 RBI. Stanislaus actually returns its top-four run producers from 2019 and also adds three freshmen to its complement of offensive players. The SSU pitching staff had a very respectable 2.47 staff ERA in 2019, but zero of its three pitchers managed a win-loss record better than .500 since the offense only averaged 3.0 runs-per-game. The Warriors return their most heavily utilized arm from 2019,
Kyndra Marzorini. Marzorini logged nearly 150 innings and went 11-13 with a 2.74 ERA and a team-high 107 strikeouts. Stanislaus State played well against PacWest conference competition in 2019. The Warriors went a combined 6-4 against schools from the PWC, earning wins over Chaminade, Concordia Irvine, NDNU, Holy Names and Academy of Art and having its losses come against CUI, Azusa Pacific and ART U.
BIOLA (0-0, 28-17 in 2019) vs CSU EAST BAY (0-0, 12-36 in 2019): Friday January 31 at 12:30 p.m. \\
Live Stats \\
Tickets \\
at Great Park Irvine \\
Tournament Website
Opening Day's afternoon game will be the sixth all-time meeting between Biola and the Pioneers of CSU East Bay. CSUEB (formerly CSU Hayward) won the first-ever meeting back in 2000, but Biola earned wins in each of the next four meetings (all between 2000-02) and have outscored CSUEB 28-8 in the rivalry's history. The Pioneers' last winning season was back in 2017 when the team went 27-25 and 19-19 in CCAA play. CSUEB finished dead last in the CCAA in 2019 with an 8-28 record in conference contests. They were picked to repeat that finish in the recent CCAA Preseason Coaches' Poll.The Pioneers played three PacWest opponents in 2019, losing to Concordia Irvine and Academy of Art, but managing a surprise
4-3 win over Hawaii Hilo. The biggest problem for CSUEB last season was its pitching. The Pioneers had a staff ERA above five and allowed on average 6.5 runs-per-game.
Abby Greer led the team in innings pitched with 132.1 and led the staff in ERA. However, the ERA was still high at 4.39 and batters hit .319 against her. Two of CSUEB's four pitchers from 2019 return this year. They're joined by freshman
Kelsi Rice and junior transfer from
Ohlone College (junior college),
Anamaria Beard.
BIOLA (0-0, 28-17 in 2019) vs CSU DOMINGUEZ HILLS (0-0, 27-19 in 2019): Saturday February 1 at 10 a.m. \\
Live Stats \\
Tickets \\
at Great Park Irvine \\
Tournament Website
Strangely, considering the two school's close proximity, this is also the first matchup ever between Biola Softball and CSU Dominguez Hills Softball. The Toros had a solid season last year in the return of head coach Jim Maier. Maiel led the team to an improvement from 15-37 overall in 2018 to 27-19 overall last season. The improvement was still only good enough for seventh place in the uber-competitive CCAA. The Toros were selected to repeat that finish in the recently released
CCAA Preseason Coaches' Poll. CSUDH did manage a 6-2 record in neutral site contests in 2019, so that could play a role in their ability to pick up wins over at Great Park. Biola will be CSUDH's third opponent on the week, following matchups against Azusa Pacific and Hawaii Pacific. The Toros went 2-0 against PacWest Conference opponents in 2019, beating
Chaminade (6-2) and Dominican (6-2) in the same day. Junior
Chloe Wenger is the only significant offensive producer from 2019 that returns in 2020. The other three top producers for last year's Toros team graduated out of the program. Also, 2019 freshman and all-conference honorable mention player Amanda Canizales is missing from the 2020 roster. CSUDH does return two pitchers from last year's three-person staff, with junior
Alyssa Olague leading the way. She went 12-7 last season, holding batters to a .282 while striking out more than 90. The staff will be bolstered by the addition of freshman
Clarisa Ramirez, who won over 30 games and had an ERA under 2.00 in her high school career. She earned all-league honors and was named her area pitcher of the year in high school.
BIOLA (0-0, 28-17 in 2019) vs #21 CHICO STATE (0-0, 31-17 in 2019): Saturday February 1 at 3 p.m. \\
Live Stats \\
Tickets \\
at Great Park Irvine \\
Tournament Website
Chico State has a long history of softball success, with five consecutive NCAA postseason appearances headed into the 2020 campaign. The Wildcats are led by a familiar face in junior Brooke Larsen. Larsen, the ace of the staff for Chico, is in her second season with the Wildcats after spending her first year pitching at Academy of Art. While in the PacWest, Larsen was part of a trio of tremendous freshmen pitchers who dominated PacWest play in 2018. It was Larsen, Concordia Irvine's Callie Nunes, and our very own
Paige Austin. Larsen comes into 2020 with a career pitching record of 42-13 and an ERA right around 1.50 in just over 350 innings pitched. She's struck out 386 batters in those innings, including an eye-popping 217 as a freshman. By the way, Larsen also bats. She's got a career average over .300 with 80+ hits, 24 extra-base hits and just about 40 RBI. She was the CCAA's pitcher of the year last season and earned all-region first team honors. Larsen is a big reason why Chico State managed to make the NCAA Division II West Regional and finish second in the CCAA last season. The Wildcats were picked to repeat that second-place finish in the
recent preseason poll put on by the CCAA. Chico State went 3-0 against the PacWest last season, beating Azusa Pacific, Hawaii Hilo and Holy Names in games that were all decided by one or two runs. Pitching was key all season for Chico State last year as they had a down offensive year by their standards. The team averaged just over four runs-per-game, which was about two full runs-per-game lower than the year before. Reilani Peleti is the only offensive player of note that returns from last year's team. She was All-CCAA second team a year ago with a .336 average, four homeruns and 23 RBI.
BIOLA (0-0, 28-17 in 2019) vs CSU SAN MARCOS (0-0, 14-31 in 2019): Sunday February 2 at 12:30 p.m. \\
Live Stats \\
Tickets \\
at Great Park Irvine \\
Tournament Website
Biola will wrap up its opening week with a game that seems like it's been forever in the making, yet once again happens at a less-than-ideal time. After weather conditions and other factors forced Biola to reschedule a planned doubleheader with CSUSM multiple times last season, the Eagles and Cougars finally got started on a Sunday, February 10 last year. Biola took an immediate lead and saw freshman Sicili Brittingham hit her first homerun of her collegiate career, but then just 1-2 innings into the game the rain came and canceled the doubleheader and wiped out all the accumulated stats (sorry, Sicili). Now, it's a Sunday matchup again for the Eagles and Cougars as the two sides go toe-to-toe on Super Bowl Sunday. The Eagles have played CSUSM 35 times since the start of 2007 with San Marcos controlling the all-time series with a 19-16 advantage. Biola has won each of the last five meetings though, dating back to the time Biola was in the Golden State Athletic Conference and CSUSM in the A.I.I. (NAIA). Biola's wins in six of the last seven meetings wiped out a streak of 15 in a row that CSUSM had won between 2010 and 2014. That was a stretch of seasons that saw the Cougars make deep NAIA Tournament runs each year and compile a total record of 224-53-1. That level of success has been more difficult to achieve since CSUSM went NCAA Division II. That was illustrated with last season's 14-31 overall record and second-to-last finish in the CCAA. The team was picked to repeat that CCAA finish in this year's preseason coaches' poll. The 2020 team has a very large roster, with 27 total players on the squad. Mixed into that are transfers from Hope International, San Diego Christian, Citrus College and El Camino College.
Jamie Ponce (Hope International) and
Emily Paredez (Citrus) are likely to be the two impact players among the transfers. Both earned all-league honors at their last stop, with Ponce going 20-5 for the Royals in 2019 and 15-4 with a 1.34 ERA as a freshman in 2018. Paredez hit .321 in 2019 and had 24 runs scored and 17 RBI. CSUSM also gets back their leading power hitters from 2019,
Melody Forstie and
Andrea Wood. Those two combined for 11 of the Cougars' 18 homeruns last year. But CSUSM hit just .254 as a team throughout the year averaging 3.1 runs-per-game. The Cougars went 2-1 against PacWest schools last season, losing to Hawaii Hilo and picking up wins vs. Holy Names and Dominican.
ABOUT LAST YEAR: Biola Softball made it to the championship game at the National Christian College Athletic Association World Series in Botetourt, Virginia. One sixth-inning, two-run double from Erskine College made it so that BU didn't realize it's ultimate goal of returning home as National Champions, but it was still a remarkably successful season for first-year head coach
Nikki Udria's squad. The Eagles won their most conference games ever (both in the PacWest and Golden State Athletic Conference) and boasted the conference Player of the Year in
Kayla Neff. Biola finished the year with six all-conference players and both Neff and sophomore sensation
Paige Austin earned all-region recognition. Neff ended her season with a .424 batting average, recorded 24 extra-base hits including eight homeruns, scored 32 times and drove in 34 runs. She helped Biola lead the PacWest Conference in hitting and finish top-5 in hits, runs scored, doubles, triples, homeruns, stolen bases, RBI and total bases. Biola had the second-best slugging percentage and the second-fewest strikeouts in the whole league. Austin led the charge on the pitching side. The sophomore finished her year with a 14-7 record and 1.37 earned run average. She struck out 159 batters in 142 innings and took on the burden of 14 complete games for Udria and the team. Biola's staff had the most saves in the league and was top-5 in ERA, shutouts, wins, hits allowed and strikeouts. The team allowed the third-fewest earned runs in the league and second-fewest big flies. Biola loses all-conference players in
Hailey Boyett,
Areana Ramos and
Missy Poti, but it returns just about everybody else from its 2019 team and adds five impact freshmen.
WHO'S NEW?: Biola has six newcomers on its 2020 roster. Five freshmen and one transfer. See more about each new player below.
IT'S REAL STARTING NOW: The 2020 Biola Softball season has added significance in that it's the Eagles' first as full members in NCAA Division II. Back on July 12, 2019 the Biola campus received a call from the NCAA Division II Membership Committee notifying BU of its successful completion of the membership transition process. The change became official as of September 1 and now Biola is officially eligible for NCAA postseason play, national and regional rankings and official NCAA postseason honors. The Eagles will be competing for a chance to compete at NCAA Division II regionals, super regionals and finals at the end of the season. The PacWest Conference does not currently host a postseason conference tournament, making a postseason appearance all the more meaningful. Last season, Concordia Irvine went 47-8 overall and 30-3 in PacWest Conference play to represent the conference in NCAA postseason. The Eagles of Irvine rode the arm of Callie Nunes, the reigning PacWest Pitcher of the Year and first-team All-American, all the way to the Super Regional final, where they came up short 4-3 against UC San Diego.
UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Tori Apodaca - 100 games played (79)
Tori Apodaca - 100 putouts (63)
Paige Austin - 400 IP (274.1)
Paige Austin - 40 wins (29)
Paige Austin - 50 starts (28)
Paige Austin - 25 complete games (18)
Paige Austin - 10 saves (7)
Paige Austin - 500 strikeouts (306)
Paige Austin - 1,500 batters faced (1,205)
Paula Damas - 25 wins (16)
Paula Damas - 100 appearances (70)
Paula Damas - 40 starts (26)
Paula Damas - 300 IP (207.1)
Paula Damas - 150 strikeouts (98)
Paula Damas - 1,000 batters faced (985)
Ari Gonzales - 50 games played (40)
Ari Gonzales - 100 putouts (69)
Haley Martinez - 100 games played (92)
Jennifer Morinishi - 100 IP (52.1)
Jennifer Morinishi - 500 batters faced (263)
Jennifer Morinishi - 50 games played (43)
Ruth Munoz - 100 games played (89)
Ruth Munoz - 75 runs scored (59)
Ruth Munoz - 100 hits (72)
Ruth Munoz - 50 walks (31)
Ruth Munoz - 200 putouts (160)
Ruth Munoz - 200 assists (116)
Kayla Neff - 150 games played (136)
Kayla Neff - 100 runs scored (69)
Kayla Neff - 200 hits (142)
Kayla Neff - 50 doubles (40)
Kayla Neff - 20 homeruns (14)
Kayla Neff - 100 RBI (81)
Kayla Neff - 50 walks (40)
Kayla Neff - 800 putouts (640)
Kayla Neff - 100 assists (75)
Kylie Velasco - 100 games played (69)
Kylie Velasco - 100 putouts (75)
Kylie Velasco - 100 assists (50)
NEXT WEEK: No games.
