POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
LA MIRADA, Calif. — Biola Softball defeated Jessup University 11–2 at Freedom Field to survive the consolation bracket of the PacWest Championships and advance to the tournament championship series against Concordia.
"We are a resilient bunch. We've been in this situation all season. I had full confidence they were going to bounce back," said Head Coach
Kristin Halte. "But, the biggest thing was just to have fun. When they have fun it just keeps going and going. It was electric in our dugout."
The Eagles were held scoreless in the first inning but broke through in the second as an Ariana Banos single to center field scored Izabella Larson and gave Biola a 1–0 lead.
The Eagles opened things up in the third as Alexa Medley Sheard and Kendall Nakano both found their way on base and then Lilliann Garcia homered to left-center field to make it 4-0.
Jessup answered in the bottom of the third with a solo shot of their own. Then, Biola added two more in the fourth. RBI hits from Medley and Nakano made it 6–1. The Eagles got three more in the top of the fifth to push out to a run-rule lead at 9-1.
In a special moment, the Warriors got one back in their half of the fifth on a solo home run to center field by Maddy Ybarra, trimming the lead to 9–2 and extending the game. It was a homerun that gave the senior the all-time homerun record for her school. That was as close as Jessup would get as Biola slammed the door closed in the sixth with another big blast. This time it was Janessa Hernandez who blasted a pinch-hit a two-run home run to center field to make it 11–2.
"Jessup is a really good hitting team. We knew it would be a slugfest," said Halte. "We just had to keep pushing and scoring runs because we knew at any point they could turn it on."
DJ Symons earned the win in a relief effort, going 4.1 innings and allowing just two runs on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks.
Biola finished with 14 hits in the game. Huskey led the way going 3-for-4 with a stolen base. Banos went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, Ibarra went 2-for-4, and Tsue went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Garcia finished 1-for-2 with a three-run home run, two walks, and three RBI. Hernandez added two RBI on her pinch-hit homer. Lara also contributed an RBI single off the bench.
With the victory, Biola improved to 37–20 on the season and will face Concordia in the PacWest Championship series. The championship series begins at 12 p.m. Concordia will be the home team in game one.
"It's very fitting it's us and Concordia," said Nakano. "We want it a lot. I know they want it too. Hopefully, tomorrow is our day. We are going to leave it all out on the field."
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