Good Day All Around

Recap, photo courtesy of Biola

Biola Baseball plays great in both games of the doubleheader against Hawaii Hilo and starts PacWest play with a 3-1 record.

 

 HILO, Hawaii --- The Biola baseball team flexed its collective muscles on Saturday with two convincing road wins at Hawaii Hilo that clinch a 3-1 series win.

Brayden Englert gave his team a sparkling pitching performance in game one while his teammates tacked on the runs they needed to earn a 4-1 win. Then the heavy hitters were unleashed in the second game as Biola hit three homeruns and four multi-run frames in the seven-inning contest to win 11-3.

The Eagles collected 25 hits during the doubleheader to take first place in the PacWest at the end of the weekend with a 3-1 conference record. Head Coach Justin Duarte's group will also return to California with a .500 record on the trip and a winning record overall at 7-6.

The Vulcans were able to clip Englert for a single run in the first inning of game one on two two-out hits. But the freshman righty settled in very quickly in the succeed innings, shuting UH Hilo out for the rest of the game and going the full nine innings on an extremely efficient 80 pitches.

Englert induced 15 groundouts during his complete game, the first nine-inning CG for Biola Baseball since April 21, 2017, and retired 19 batters in a row from the second inning to the eighth inning. He only allowed a two-out single in the second and a two-out single in the eighth after allowing a run in the first inning.

While Englert was dominating, the Eagles took the lead in the third inning with hustle baseball: an RBI single and sacrifice fly from the six and seven hitters to after Biola put two runners in scoring position with one out. Then Biola added successive runs in the seventh and eighth on hits from Jerron Largusa and Brandon Cody, respectively, that pushed the lead to its resting place of 4-1.

Seven Eagles had at least one hit in game one while the tea only amassed four strikeouts. 

RobertAnthony Cruz lead the charge with three hits in game one before collecting three more in game two. The sophomore middle infielder led the PacWest with 11 hits this week and leaves Hilo with doubles in three-straight games.

But it was the long ball that did the meaningful damage in game two. After a Connor Kostecka single gave Biola a 2-1 lead in game two, Jackson Collins hit his first homerun of the year to drive in two more and give the Eagles a 4-1 lead that would end up being the difference in the game.

Kostecka would leave the yard himself in the fourth to give the Eagles some breathing room after UH Hilo scored two in the third inning. Then RJ Bates hit his third homer of the trip with a two-run bomb in the fifth that put the Eagles up 7-3.

Bates led the conference with 10 RBI's on four extra-base hits and eight total hits this week. No other player in the conference had more than five RBI's.

The Eagles would add two more runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh. Andrew Buglino and Kostecka joined Bates and Collins with two-RBI games after the latter two drove in two with one swing of the bat in the series finale.

Anthony Villegas earned the win for Biola after pitching two scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth. He finishes the series with 5.1 scoreless innings against the Vulcans while allowing just one hit.