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Jen Morinishi hitting the ball
George Rodriguez
4
Concordia Portland CU 11-9
5
Winner Biola University BU-SB 8-2
Concordia Portland CU
11-9
4
Final
5
Biola University BU-SB
8-2
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Concordia Portland CU 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 4 5 0
Biola University BU-SB 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 5 8 1

W: Austin, Paige (5-1) L: Bowles,Sally (6-3)

Game Recap: Softball |

'Mor' Good Stuff

Jennifer Morinishi comes up with the clutch hit again to walk it off vs. Concordia Portland.

LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Before heading off for a week-and-a-half to the Hawaiian islands, Biola Softball had some unfinished business to take care of on Saturday at Freedom Field as it faced the Concordia Portland Cavaliers one last time.

Biola trailed for the entire ballgame, but got just what it needed during its last at-bats to earn a thrilling 5-4 walk-off win in the opener.

As has been par for the course over the past two weeks, Jennifer Morinishi was at the center of everything for Head Coach Nikki Udria's team, being the one to come up with the walk-off, three-run double in the opener before earning the pitching win with 5+ innings of relief in the nightcap.
 
"Jen is doing fantastic. She really puts in the work and you can see it paying off," said Udria. "I couldn't ask for anyone better to come up in that situation and she really clutched up."

The Eagles will be very pleased to walk away with two wins out of this doubleheader, having not displayed their absolute best at Freedom Field this weekend. That was particularly evident during the first game, where up until the very last at-bats of the game Biola had a hard time taking a good approach at the plate.

Almost every single batter was up their first-pitch swinging in the opener, allowing the Concordia Portland starter to be working in the sixth inning with fewer than 30 pitches thrown in the game.

Biola made 13 first-pitch outs over the course of the first game, helping CU started Sally Bowles cruise into the final two innings sporting a 4-0 lead and feeling fantastic about it.

The visiting Cavaliers built that four-run lead all in one inning as they got to Paige Austin for three hits, a pair of hit-by-pitches and all four runs in the top half of the third inning. That was the first, and really only, chink in the armor of Austin who struck out the side in the first, set the Cavaliers down in order in the second and then allowed just two more hits in the fourth through seventh innings to end up the winning pitcher.

The sixth inning is where Biola absolutely needed to come alive in game one if they were going to have a chance of building a comeback. The team answered the bell, stringing together back-to-back-to-back hits to begin the frame as Tori Apodaca, Kiana Meriales and Ruth Munoz looked to spark a rally.

Munoz had a one-run double to set up runners at second and third with nobody out for the meat of the BU lineup. Unfortunately for the Eagles, no one else could come through in that half-inning with a groundout, strikeout and pop out ending the inning with CU holding on to a still significant 4-1 lead.
 
Austin had an eight-pitch 1-2-3 inning in the top of the seventh inning to send the team back into the dugout with momentum.

Kylie Velasco got things going with a single to start the action in the no. 5 spot in the lineup in the Eagles' last ABs. She would steal second to ramp up the pressure and give Sicili Brittingham a chance with a runner in scoring position and just one out. 

Brittingham went down 1-2 early with a pair of swings and misses, but then the sophomore knuckled down and fouled off four pitches in a gritty performance before working a 10 pitch walk that would be absolutely critical to the Eagles' ability to win the game. 

After the walk, Tori Apodaca popped a ball up into foul territory just behind the first-base dugout. The popup forced the fielder to turn their back to home plate and ultimately allowed Kylie Velasco to take home plate on a sacrifice fly. 

Still with two outs, Kiana Meriales legged out an infield single to shortstop in a game-saving bang-bang play at the first-base bag. Then Munoz loaded the bases by getting plunked allowing Morinishi to come up with a serious chance to tie or win the game.

The sophomore stud wasted no time, turning around the first pitch she saw into the right-center field gap to bring three runs around and give Biola a 5-4 walk-off win. 

"We are happy with the wins," said Udria. "A win is a win, but we had some poor execution today. It's not really the way we play the game. But, at the end of the day it's two wins and that's what is most important."

Biola won the game on the merit of eight hits, including doubles from Munoz, Morinishi and Kylie Velasco. The Eagles stranded that handful of runners in the sixth inning, but because of the patience of Brittingham, effort of Meriales and unwavering execution from Morinishi the Eagles overcame all obstacles in game one.

Morinishi and Velasco combined for half of the team's hits with two apiece with Munoz also reaching base multiple times.

It was a gritty win for Paige Austin, who improved to 5-1, and a really tough-luck loss for CU's Sally Bowles who through a whale of a ballgame, but still dropped to 6-3. 

The Eagles closed out the doubleheader with a game 30 minutes later at Freedom Field.
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