SAN RAFAEL--Concordia and Azusa Pacific both earned an early wake-up call with wins on the first day of the Pacific West Conference Championships.

No. 1 seed Concordia defeated No. 4 Biola, 9-5 at Penguin Field, and the No. 2 Cougars topped No. 3 Hawai`i Hilo, 4-2 in the afternoon game to advance to the championship round on Thursday. 

CUI and APU will meet at 10 am tomorrow. The Vulcans and Eagles meet at 1 pm in a loser's out game, and the third game of the day features the loser of the first game against the winner of the second game at 4 pm in another loser's out contest.

Whoever wins the Cougar-Golden Eagle match-up at 10 am has a ticket to Friday's title game at noon.

Thursday, 10 am
Concordia (37-12) vs. Azusa Pacific (29-17)
Thursday, 1 pm
Hawai`i Hilo (24-16) vs. Biola (18-25)--loser out
Thursday, 4 pm
Loser of 10 am game vs. winner of 1 pm game--loser out

CONCORDIA 9, BIOLA 5
In a game that hardly anyone expected to be a slugfest, No. 1 seed Concordia outscored Biola, 9-5 to advance to the Thursday's morning winner's game.

The two teams combined for 23 hits with two of the best throwers in the conference in the pitcher's circle. Biola struck first with three runs in the top of the first off of the PacWest Pitcher of the Year Cortney Koelmans. Mikala Huskey had the big blow with a two-run triple.

But Concordia answered right back. Facing Raylene Roybal, an All-PacWest selection, the Golden Eagles raced to five first inning runs on three hits, the bigger run producer coming from Shelby Pfeiler's three-run blast. That moved Roybal to right field, and by the top of the third Koelmans was gone from the game as well. The Eagles got a run back that inning on another triple off the bat of Huskey to make it 5-4. 

CUI would continue to score a run in all but one inning the rest of the way, while Katlin Entrup came out of the bullpen and mostly kept the Eagles off the scoreboard. The All-PacWest pitcher pitched five innings, gave up just one run and four hits to earn the win. 

In addition to Pfieler's early home run, the Golden Eagles also got round trippers from Missy Nemeth and Rylie Rohr. Nemeth had three hits on the day, while teammate Jessica Im, Pfeiler and Mary Baccay had a pair of hits each. 

Huskey led the Eagle offense with the two triples and three RBI. Jackie Ibarra and Kaitlyn Hawkins had two hits each for Biola.

AZUSA PACIFIC 4, HAWAI`I HILO 2
This one started with an offensive bang as well when the Cougars put four runs on the board in the first inning. APU had four hits in the bottom half of the inning, with Katie Korstroms two-run single helping her own cause in the pitcher's circle. 

That would be all the runs that Korstrom would need and that was a good thing because the Cougars wouldn't score again. The Vulcans meanwhile pushed a run across in the second inning on Kanoe Piltz's RBI single, but Korstrom would hold them off the board until the sixth when Lexie Tilton doubled and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-2.

Credit to Hilo's Tehani Seto, who came out of the bullpen in the first inning and didn't allow a Cougar run the whole afternoon. She pitched 5.2 innings and allowed just four hits.

Korstrom got the win to improve to 17-5 on the season, and it took her 125 pitches to do it. Korstrom gave up just four hits, two runs and fanned nine batters. Bella Fraser and Sierra Sandoval had two hits each for the Cougars.

For a deeper look into the tournament, go to the Championships page for video, stats, record books and the tournament program.