LA MIRADA, Calif.—After six hours of softball, lightening delays and an injury timeout, one softball game between Biola and UH Hilo is in the books and another has been suspended in the third inning.
The host Eagles won a 9-inning marathon first game, 6-5, and were leading the nightcap 3-0 in the bottom of the third when a 10 p.m. La Mirada city curfew came into force, halting the game. It will be resumed tomorrow (Thursday), at 3 p.m. Pacific time.
With the extra inning loss, the Vulcans fell to 12-3 in the Pacific West Conference and to 17-6 overall. Biola moved over .500 at 10-9 on the year and 5-4 in the PacWest.
The first game, complete with lightening and injury delays, took four hours and 20 minutes to complete from the original start time.
Early on, the game looked to be headed to a short, mercy rule ending. The Eagles scored five runs in the second inning on six hits—including a two-run home run by Areana Ramos. That chased Vulcan starter
Isabelle Mejia for the second straight day, bringing in
Billi Derleth out of the bullpen.
Derleth cooled the Biola bats, but the Vulcans couldn't get anything going on offense against Paige Austin, trailing 5-0 heading into the sixth. Then things got muddy for Austin, who suddenly lost her strike zone. Walks and an RBI-single by
Maria Steadmon brought in the first run. Walks and a hit batter brought in another two runs and
Kiarra Lincoln then singled in the fourth run.
Kimberly Olivas singled in the tying run, but twice the Vulcans had runners thrown out at home plate—the potential winning runs. The teams went to the seventh inning, tied at 5-5. Steadmon doubled but was stranded, and Derleth continued to be effective in the pitching circle.
Neither team scored in the eighth. The Vulcans threatened again in the ninth, when Steadmon laced her fourth hit of the game and Mejia walked with two outs. But Austin, who came back into the game after leaving in the sixth, got the next out via a strikeout.
In the ninth, a single and an error, followed by another single set the table for Biola slugger Kayla Neff—who was hitless to this point, but slapped a single to right field to end the game.
The Vulcans had just seven hits in the game, four of them by Steadmon. The senior outfielder scored a run, had an RBI and a double. Derleth deserved better than the loss, pitching seven innings without giving up an earned run. She scattered ten hits, walked only one and fanned three.
In the second game, Biola grabbed the early lead on Hailey Boyett's double and added two more runs in the third on a pair of hits, a wild pitch and an error. On Thursday, they will continue batting in the third when the game resumes.
