IRVINE, Calif. – After dropping its first game of the NCAA West Regional, Concordia was put in the tough position of needing five wins in a row to win the region. So far, the No. 1 seed of the tournament has been up to the challenge winning three games in a row with 30 runs combined in the three wins to advance to the regional championship, where Concordia will face a familiar foe in Biola.
 
The Eagles began their road through the elimination bracket with a 9-0 win on Thursday night against Northwest Nazarene, and on Friday they added a 9-2 win over Central Washington and a 12-3 win over Hawai`i Hilo to soar into Saturday’s championship with a lot of momentum and the most wins of any team in the tournament at three.
 
Concordia reached the regional semifinals in 2018 and then the regional final in 2019. The Eagles are now looking to go one step farther, needing to win both games tomorrow in order to advance to the national tournament in Colorado. Biola has won both of its games in the tournament and needs to only win one of the two games in order to advance to the nationals.
 
Three PacWest and three GNAC teams were selected by the NCAA to compete in the 2021 NCAA West Regional, and all three PacWest teams were still alive when the last GNAC team was eliminated. Concordia ended Central Washington’s season with a 9-2 victory, guaranteeing that the West Region champion would be a PacWest program.
 
Cortney Koelmans threw 4.1 innings in relief against the Wildcats and struck out seven batters with no hits and only one walk allowed to earn her fourth win of the season. In the seventh inning, Rylie Rohr hit a 3-run home run that was nearly robbed by the centerfielder but tipped the glove and went over the fence. Rohr finished the game 3 for 4 with three runs and 5 RBIs. McKinsey Thorpe went 3 for 5 in the game for the Eagles and drove in two runs.
 
Shortly after the win, the Eagles had to take on Hawai`i Hilo in another must-win game for a spot in the regional final. Erika Morris was called upon to pitch for the Eagles and she came through for her sixth win of the season. Morris didn’t allow any runs in the first five innings of the game as the Eagles built up a 12-0 lead.
 
Megan Massa and Sydney Sprinkle were two of several players that had big performances at the plate against the Vulcans as the Eagles looked to avenge their only loss of the tournament. Sprinkle roped a home run down the left-field line to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning. In the second time through the lineup, Massa also hit the ball down the third-base line for an RBI-single. Massa drove in two more runs in her next time to bat in the fourth inning with a 2-RBI double hit into the gap in right centerfield.
 
Concordia put seven runs on the board in the sixth inning, which started with a bases-clearing double by Sprinkle, who finished the game 2 for 4 with five RBIs. Later in the inning, Jocelyn Pino hit a 3-run shot to make the score 12-0.
 
Hawai`i Hilo got three runs back in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the final score 12-3. The Vulcans end their season with a 19-13 record as the Hawai`i Pod Champions and their first trip to the NCAA West Regional since 2014. Concordia improved to 33-12 going into the championship against Biola. During the regular season, Biola won 7 of 12 games against Concordia.