IRVINE, Calif. – Concordia saved its best performance of the NCAA West Regional for Saturday’s final, beating Western Oregon 5-0 to advance to the NCAA West Region Championship Series next week.
 
Callie Nunes threw a three-hit shutout against the Wolves to clinch the sub-regional title at the first time of asking. The Eagles improved to 47-6 and advance to play in the championship series on Thursday and Friday against either UC San Diego and Chico State. Western Oregon wraps up its season with a 33-18 record after reaching the sub-regional final.
 
“It was a great game for us today,” head coach Crystal Rosenthal said. “I just told Callie that it was a great time to have a great game. Her stuff was really good today. Her stuff is good most days, but today the ball was floating pretty well and that’s very hard to hit.”
 
Nunes struck out nine batters with just one walk as she picked up her 33^rd win of the season, improving to 33-4. Concordia’s offense only had three extra-base hits in the game, but the Eagles made the most of it with timely hitting and good baserunning to get five runs to score.
 
Heather Nonora got aboard with an infield single as the leadoff hitter in the third inning to spark the Eagles’ offense. Megan Massa, who finished the day 4 for 4 from the plate, singled up the middle to put two runners on with no outs. Sydni Dix executed her bunt and then Sydney Sprinkle laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to drive in Nonora. After the play at the plate, Sprinkle tried to advance to second base and got caught in a rundown. Massa took advantage and ran home, beating the throw, which allowed Sprinkle to advance safely to second base. The Eagles then added another run as Mackenzie Graham singled up the middle to allow pinch-runner Julianna Covarrubias to score.
 
“The thing I’m most proud of is that our energy,” Rosenthal said. “Controlling our energy really helps control the pace of the game. Our effort was really good in the things that we can control.”
 
Concordia scratched across two more runs in the fourth inning after getting a leadoff double by McKinsey Thorpe. Nonora laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Thorpe to third before Thorpe stole home while the ball returned to the pitcher. Later in the inning Sprinkle singled to leftfield on a line drive that hit the fence, scoring Dix from second base for the 5-0 lead.
 
“This year, we were mentally and physically ready for this tournament,” Nunes said. “From the very beginning, this is where we wanted to be.”
 
In the final three innings, Nunes struck out four more batters and didn’t let any baserunners get into scoring position as she closed out her 12th shutout of the season. Sprinkle made the catch for the final out of the game on an infield pop up to begin Concordia’s celebration of winning the sub-regional.
 
“I was a little nervous [during the final play] because yesterday I had the same play,” Sprinkle said. “It was an awesome feeling to be able to catch the last out.”
 
For the first time in program history, the Eagles have advanced past the sub-regional stage of the NCAA Division II tournament as the PacWest Champions look to make a deep playoff run.