SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Concordia won all four of its games at the PacWest Automatic Qualifier Pod Series, which featured each of the PacWest’s three pod champions, meaning the Eagles earned an automatic berth into the NCAA West Regional.
Concordia will host the NCAA West Regional, which will be held on May 19-21 at Eagles Field. Hawai`i Hilo and Dominican each won their respective pods and will be hoping for an at-large bid after going 1-3 at the AQ Pod Series. Biola also has a strong chance of earning an at-large bid into the six-team tournament of the best teams from the GNAC and PacWest.
In the first game of the series,
Rylie Rohr broke up a pitching duel between Hawai`i Hilo’s
Valerie Alvarado and Concordia’s
Kelsea Sweeney with a solo home run to left-center field. Then PacWest Player of the Year
Mackenzie Thorpe got an RBI-single to make the score 2-0.
Callie Nunes came into the game to record the last out with a strikeout for her third save of the season for a 2-1 victory.
Dominican defeated Hawai`i Hilo in the second game of the day, creating a late afternoon matchup between two teams that were 1-0 in the series as the Eagles faced the Penguins.
Megan Massa set the tone for that game with an infield single in a seven-pitch at-bat which helped lead to two runs in the first inning. Concordia pushed the lead to 9-0 as Nunes threw five shutout innings for her 11
th win of the season.
Sydney Sprinkle started the second day of the series with solo home runs in her second and third plate appearances to give Concordia a 2-0 lead.
Kiarra Lincoln got one of those runs back with a home run of her own for Hawai`i Hilo. Both teams scored two runs in the sixth inning to keep Concordia’s lead at only one.
Nia Trinidad retired the side in order in the top half of the seventh, but the Vulcans were unable to get anything going in the bottom half of the inning.
Erika Morris closed out another win for the Eagles with a five-out save with only one hit allowed.
Dominican still had a mathematical chance at winning the series going into the fifth game, but the Penguins needed a big offensive performance. However, Sweeney again threw a gem for Concordia with a four-hit shutout. An unearned run in the fifth inning followed by another run on a two-out RBI double by
Jocelyn Pino gave the Eagles all the offense they needed. In the final game, Hawai`i Hilo defeated Dominican, 4-0.
Concordia now appears to be the clear choice to receive the No. 1 seed for the NCAA West Regional next week after having gone 4-0 against regionally-ranked teams this week. Concordia is now 30-11 on the season with a 14-8 record against teams ranked in the West Region. The Eagles reached the regional semifinals in 2018 and the regional championship against UC San Diego in 2019 after winning the sub-regional.
Pino led the series in total bases and batting average by going 6 for 11 with a home run, three doubles and four RBIs with two walks. Nunes was the leader in ERA with 5.1 shutout innings, while Sweeney had a 0.51 ERA and two victories. Alvarado led all pitchers with 10 strikeouts. Sprinkled was the series leader in runs with four, while
Lauren Lopez had three.