The baseball team dropped their series against The Master’s College on March 21. The loss brings their overall record to 13-19 and their Goldens State Athletic Conference record to 10-17.

The last time Biola matched up against The Master’s, the Mustangs swept Biola 15-2, 5-2 and 3-2. The Eagles stole one win this series against the top team in the GSAC, but could not get the runs they needed to take the series from the Mustangs.

The Master’s scored the first run of the series in the third inning. The Eagles responded in the same inning with a run of their own to go into the fourth tied at one.

Biola proved their offensive strength with three home-runs to surge ahead of the Mustangs. The first homer came from junior infielder Julian Jarrard in the fourth inning, followed by Andres Rodriguez in the fifth and seventh to put Biola up 4-1. The Master’s could only score one more run in the eighth, to give Biola their first win over the Master’s this season.

DOUBLEHEADER DEFEAT

Unfortunately, Biola could not duplicate those results the next day, going 0-2 in the doubleheader.

The Eagles were once again trailing behind The Master’s at the beginning of the game. The Master’s were up 2-0 in the second inning before Jarrard sent another ball over the fence to put Biola only one run behind.

Things started going south for Biola when The Master’s right fielder Bryce Clancy shot the ball out to right centerfield to give the Mustangs two more runs and extend their lead to 4-1. The Mustangs got one more run in the fourth and denied Biola of scoring any runs in the first three outs. The Master’s even got a home run of their own in the fifth inning for a comfortable lead of 6-1.

Biola made sure that The Master’s were not comfortable for long. The Eagles came firing back in the sixth inning with three runs of their own to narrow the lead to 6-4. The Master’s scored one more run in the seventh to give a little more breathing room for a lead of 7-4. Despite getting on base a few more times, the Eagles could not bring anyone home to score the runs needed to win the game.

CRUNCH TIME

The Eagles came out looking to steal the series win away from the Masters in the first inning of the final game. Biola scored two runs back to back in the first inning and held onto the lead up until the third inning.

The Master’s tied the game up 2-2 in the third, and then took off with the lead in the fifth. The Mustangs scored five runs in the fifth inning alone to take the lead 7-2. Biola tried to come back in the fifth with a single run to bring the score within four. Neither team scored another run, and the Eagles fell 7-3.

The loss puts the Eagles into crunch time. Biola has to win each series in the conference in order to make it to the first round of the GSAC championship. To make it to the tournament, Biola must rank fourth or higher in conference, and currently Biola is ranked fifth in conference, seven conference games behind Vanguard University.

A TOUGH TWO WEEKS

Last year, the Eagles finished sixth out of seven teams in the GSAC and did not see the postseason play with a overall record of 15-39. Biola is close to matching their wins last season.

The Eagles have a tough two weeks ahead, going up against both of the GSAC teams that swept them previously this season. The Eagles will first go head to head against Concordia University on March 27, and then Westmont College the following weekend.