LA MIRADA, Calif. --- After a three-week hiatus Biola Softball is BACK! The Eagles jump right in to PacWest Conference play this week, hosting a doubleheader with Academy of Art on Friday night and another on Saturday afternoon.

It will be the first matchups with ART U since the 2018 season, since all four games scheduled for last season in San Francisco were rained out. 

The home opener is booked for 4 p.m. on Friday night at Freedom Field.
 
THIS WEEK: vs Academy of Art (1-8; 0-0 PacWest) - Friday January 31 at at 4 p.m. & 6 p.m.; vs Academy of Art (1-8; 0-0 PacWest) - Saturday Feb. 22 at 12 p.m. and 2 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 (3-2, 0-0 PacWest) vs ACADEMY OF ART (1-8, 0-0 PacWest): Friday February 21 at 4 p.m. (DH) and Saturday February 22 at 12 p.m. (DH) \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
Biola Softball gets right to business with its first PacWest Conference contests of the 2020 season overlapping with their home opener. The Eagles welcome Academy of Art for a four-game set at Freedom Field spread across Friday and Saturday of this week. If all goes well, it will be the first successful four-game set ever between these two teams, who have just two all-time matchups head-to-head. Both of those matchups came here at Freedom Field in 2018, Biola's inaugural PacWest Conference season. The teams split a doubleheader, with Biola failing to score in game one, suffering a 5-0 loss, and then bouncing back in game two beating ART U's superstar Brooke Larsen in a 4-1 win. Larsen was all-conference first team that season and then transferred to Chico State for her sophomore and now junior seasons. ART U is off to a difficult start to the season, sitting at 1-8 overall after a pair of losses at San Francisco State earlier this week. The two teams have just one shared opponent to this point in the season. The Eagles defeated that shared opponent, CSU East Bay, 2-0 at the CUI Kick-Off Classic. ART U lost 0-8 and 1-7 to the Pioneers. The Urban Knights are led by first year head coach Steve Rianda. Rianda comes to ART U following a stint at Notre Dame de Namur from 2008-15. His most successful season coaching the Argos was 2013, when he helped them to a 34-18 record and 23-9 conference mark. Rianda coached NCAA Division I Santa Clara in 2006 and 2007. ART U went 20-19 overall and 16-11 in PacWest Conference contests in 2019. The Urban Knights return 13 players from last year's squad, headlined by All-PacWest third team player Lauryn Henderson. Henderson was all-region first team as well in 2019 while setting a program record for single-season slugging percentage (.802). As a sophomore, Henderson hit .423 with 10 homeruns and 28 RBI. She also had 12 doubles and scored 25 runs herself to account for almost one-third of the team's total runs scored (156) all by herself. Henderson missed out on earning preseason All-PacWest honors in 2020 because of Kayla Neff being in front of her at the catcher's spot and earning Preseason Player of the Year. The Urban Knights were picked to finish sixth in the PacWest Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. Henderson's been struggling to repeat last season's performance in the early-going of 2020. She's hitting just .238 so far this season with only two extra-base hits and zero homeruns. ART U has scored just 18 runs through its first nine games of the season, while allowing 61. The staff ERA of 6.96 is seventh among the nine teams in the PacWest Conference. It's more than four full runs higher than Biola's staff ERA of 2.25.

LAST TIME OUT: It's been a minute since then, but Biola Softball officially began its 2020 season with a 5-game week back at the very beginning of February. The Eagles went 3-2 at the CUI Kick-Off Classic to begin the year with a winning record. Both of the Eagles' losses came in one-run ballgames against top California Collegiate Athletic Association teams in CSUDH and Chico State. Biola had legitimate chances to win both of those games, too, with the winning run in scoring position in their final at-bats. Ruth Munoz was the offensive spark in that opening week, going 8-for-14 and having some role in seven of Biola's 19 total runs scored. She hit three doubles, walked four times and stole a base to earn Biola Athlete of the Week honors and also land on the all-tournament team. Paige Austin was also on the all-tournament team after logging almost 17 innings pitched in the one weekend, going 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA and 22 strikeouts. Austin was used by Udria in four of the five games and was joined by Paula Damas and Jennifer Morinishi in setting a staff ERA of 2.25. Even though she hasn't pitched in three weeks she's still third in the conference in strikeouts at this point of the season. Callie Nunes (Concordia Irvine) leads all players with 28 Ks in 20 innings pitched. 

ON A ROLL: Ari Gonzales has hit safely in all five games so far this year. She got a hit in her last appearance of last season as well, giving her a six-game hitting streak, which is the longest of her young career. Kayla Neff had two hitless games in her five outings so far this year, but she hasn't had a single game without reaching base yet. She's got four walks so far this season to lead the team. Dating back to last season she's reached base in seven-consecutive games. That's half of her career-best reach-base streak of 14 (4/6 - 5/2 last season).

SECOND INNING SLUMP?: Biola Softball has not scored in a second inning at all yet this year. The Eagles have scored in every other inning to post their 19 total runs, but the team hasn't managed a single run in a second inning yet this year. So far this season Academy of Art has allowed 11 of their 61 total runs given up in the second inning.

THE NUMBERS: Biola's top statistical categories in terms of national rankings.
TEAM
Fewest Hit Batters - 1 - 1st in NCAA II - 1st in PacWest
Doubles-per-game - 2.0 - 19th in NCAA II - 2nd in PacWest
Earned Run Average - 2.25 - 26th in NCAA II - 2nd in PacWest
Shutouts - 2 - 26th in NCAA II - 1st in PacWest
Strikeout-walk ratio - 3.00 - 27th in NCAA II - 2nd in PacWest
Triples-per-game - 0.40 - 35th in NCAA II - 3rd in PacWest
Fielding Percentage - .970 - 37th in NCAA II - 1st in PacWest
WHIP - 1.22 - 42nd in NCAA II - 2nd in PacWest

INDIVIDUAL
Batting average - Ruth Munoz - .571 - 19th in NCAA II - 1st in PacWest
Batting average - Ari Gonzales - .538 - 35th in NCAA II - 2nd in PacWest
Doubles-per-game - Ruth Munoz - 0.60 - 36th in NCAA II - 3rd in PacWest
Hits-per-7 innings - Paula Damas - 3.00 - 15th in NCAA II - 3rd in PacWest
On-base percentage - Ruth Munoz - .667 - 11th in NCAA II - 1st in PacWest
Strikeouts-per-7 innings - Paige Austin - 9.2 - 31st in NCAA II - 2nd in PacWest
WHIP - Paula Damas - 0.43 - 3rd in NCAA II - 1st in PacWest

WHO'S NEW?: Biola has five newcomers on its 2020 roster. All five of them are freshmen. See more about each new player below.

• Rilee Ruvalcaba
• Loren Meza
• Raylene Roybal
• Alexis Lara (RS)
• Niki Ibarra (RS)

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 (84)
Tori Apodaca - 100 putouts (80)
Paige Austin - 400 IP (291)
Paige Austin - 40 wins (31)
Paige Austin - 50 starts (30)
Paige Austin - 25 complete games (20)
Paige Austin - 10 saves (7)
Paige Austin - 500 strikeouts (328)
Paige Austin - 1,500 batters faced (1,280)
Paula Damas - 25 wins (17)
Paula Damas - 100 appearances (72)
Paula Damas - 40 starts (28)
Paula Damas - 300 IP (214.1)
Paula Damas - 150 strikeouts (101)
Paula Damas - 1,000 batters faced (1,010)
Ari Gonzales - 50 games played (45)
Ari Gonzales - 100 putouts (73)
Haley Martinez - 100 games played (97)
Jennifer Morinishi - 100 IP (60.2)
Jennifer Morinishi - 500 batters faced (300)
Jennifer Morinishi - 50 games played (48)
Ruth Munoz - 100 games played (94)
Ruth Munoz - 75 runs scored (65)
Ruth Munoz - 100 hits (80)
Ruth Munoz - 50 walks (35)
Ruth Munoz - 200 putouts (170)
Ruth Munoz - 200 assists (124)
Kayla Neff - 150 games played (141)
Kayla Neff - 100 runs scored (70)
Kayla Neff - 200 hits (147)
Kayla Neff - 50 doubles (40)
Kayla Neff - 20 homeruns (14)
Kayla Neff - 100 RBI (84)
Kayla Neff - 50 walks (44)
Kayla Neff - 800 putouts (668)
Kayla Neff - 100 assists (77)
Kylie Velasco - 100 games played (74)
Kylie Velasco - 100 putouts (80)
Kylie Velasco - 100 assists (58)

NEXT WEEK: vs. Concordia Portland (9-6) - Saturday February 29 at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.