COSTA MESA, Calif. — Pitching and defense continue to come through for Head Coach Kristin Halte's Biola Softball team. Add to that some timely hitting and you've got a great recipe for success - a recipe which cooked up a 3-1 win for Biola on Saturday at Vanguard.
The Eagles went down 1-0 to the Lions in this one as Vanguard strung together some hits in the second inning to score off Maddie Granados, but after that Biola put up nothing but zeroes while working around a lot of Vanguard base runners.
The Lions scratched out nine hits, but Biola's pitching and defense was tough in the crunch-time moments, stranding 10 Lions runners on base throughout the game. This included stranding two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth and overcoming a lead off triple in the bottom of the seventh to win the game.
The Eagles were held to just three hits of their own but benefitted from a pair of walks and also one Vanguard error. The BU side had an error-free game for the fourth consecutive game. It's the sixth time in the last seventh games that the Eagles' defense has been perfect.
After staring at a deficit in the third and fourth innings, the Eagles lifted the lid on their own scoring in the top of the fifth. Mikala Huskey's excellence with all things small ball helped jump start the BU rally.
She reached base on a single to left field and then moved herself up to second base with a steal. After a pop-up made for two outs in the inning, Huskey took third base on a wild pitch. Then, later in Ariana Banos at-bat, Huskey came around to score when Banos sent the ball straight back up the middle.
Fast forward one inning later and it turned out to be back-to-back walks that would get the scoring started as Biola sought control in the game. Alexa Medley took a one-out walk and was followed suit by Makayla Jordan.
With two ducks on the pond,
Raquel Reyes hit a ball into the left field gap to break the game open with the hit which would get the game to it's final 3-1 score line. It was her sixth double of the year. She became the fourth Eagle to hit 15 RBI for the season.
Two of the first three batters would reach for Vanguard in the bottom of the sixth inning. The caused coach Halte to make a pitching change to bring in DJ Symons, who was dominant in game one. Symons worked out of the inning and then put up a zero in the seventh to get her first save of the 2025 season.
Following the doubleheader sweep, the Eagles are up to 17-10 on the season with a sparkling 11-2 conference record. Biola will host Vanguard on Monday evening with an eye on improving upon its 12-5 record at Freedom Field. At 11-2 the Eagles are just one half-game back from Concordia (11-1) for the conference lead.
First pitch for Monday night is 3:30 p.m.
