SAN RAFAEL--Shelby Pfeiler belted a two-run home run and Missy Nemeth stroked an RBI single for two more runs to break open a pitcher's duel and lead Concordia to a 5-1 win over Azusa Pacific on Thursday morning at Penguin Field.
That bumps the No. 1 seed Golden Eagles into the Friday noon title game, where they waited while the three remaining teams in the field battled it out to be their opponent. As it turns out, it will be the Cougars again, who will have to beat CUI twice to take PacWest tournament title.
CONCORDIA 5, AZUSA PACIFIC 1
Concordia's Cortney Koelmans and APU's Sydnie Sahhar were locked in a 1-1 pitching battle until the fateful fifth inning.
Shelli Faulk led off the inning with a single for CUI and Jessica Im followed with a fielder's choice without an out. Nemeth followed with a two-run single and Pfeiler brought her home with her second home run of the tournament.
That spoiled a good outing by Sahhar who had given up just three hits and one run to that point. Meanwhile CUI's Koelmans was dealing, having only given up a solo home run to Bella Fraser. Koelmans finished strong by retiring the final seven batters she faced for her 19th win of the year (19-4). She fanned eight batters and walked just one.
HAWAII HILO 8, BIOLA 5 (11 innings)
The 1 pm game was a wild as the Vulcans and Eagles battled to keep their seasons alive. 11 innings and over 3 hours and 5 minutes later, Hawaii Hilo advanced.
It was a 2-2 game through seven innings before things went extra time. The Vulcans scored two in the top of the eighth to seemingly have the edge, but the Eagles answered with a pair of runs of their own in the bottom half. Each team scored a run in the ninth, with no runners crossing the plate in the tenth.
Finally in the 11th, UH Hilo broke the game open. Viktoria Macias roped a two-run double and Kanoe Piltz drove home another run with a single to make it 8-5. In the bottom half of the inning, Chloe Sales capped a very impressive relief outing by snaring a comebacker to end the game.
Sales pitched three innings without giving up a hit, no earned runs and walked two batters.She got the win to improve to 5-6 on the season.
Macias had a monster day at the plate, going 5-for-5 with three RBI. Lexie Tilton had three base hits, including a double and a two-run home run in the ninth. Kaitlyn Hawkins had two hits, including a double for Biola and she drove in two runs. Raylene Roybal had a solo home run in the ninth inning of her final game, while Mikala Huskey, Alexa Madley and Brie Nowak had two hits each for the Eagles, whose season ended with a 18-26 record.
AZUSA PACIFIC 4, HAWAII HILO 2
Azusa Pacific built a 3-0 lead and then held off a final charge from the Vulcans to get the win and advance to title Friday.
Sommer Quinones singled home a run in the second for a 1-0 lead, and the Cougars added to it in the third with an RBI-triple by Bella Fraser and a run-scoring single from Izzy Riveria to make it 3-0.
APU starting pitcher Felicia De La Torre was crusing to that point until she ran into trouble in the fifth. The first batter of the inning Chenoa Cainglit launched the first home run of her collegiate career to get the Vulcans on the board, and Viktoria Macias singled to centerfield to score another run to make it 3-2. The Vulcans had the bases loaded but a strikeout ended the inning.
The Cougars added an insurance run in the sixth on Rivera's sacrifice fly, Then reliever Sydnie Sahhar worked around trouble in the seventh inning to secure save, despite the Vulcans loading the bases again.
De La Torre picked up the win, while Sahhar pitched the final 2.1 innings without giving up a run with four strikeouts.
Fraser was 3-for-3 in the game to lead APU, while Macias and Tilton had two more hits each for the Vulcans. Hilo finishes their season at 25-17, while the Cougars advance to the title game with their 30th win, now at 30-18.