SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The No. 19 Cal State San Marcos softball team (18-9, 14-6 CCAA) will host No. 9 Concordia University Irvine (26-6, 14-2 PacWest) on Friday in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. before traveling to La Mirada for a 12 p.m. twinbill at Biola (17-12, 9-7 PacWest) on Saturday. 

Prior to Friday's doubleheader, CSUSM will honor the 2022 CCAA Regular-Season Conference Championship team with a championship ring and banner presentation. 

With consistent rain on Wednesday and Thursday, please follow @CSUSMSoftball on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date on all schedule changes and cancelations this weekend.

LAST TIME OUT

• The Cougars split their series at San Francisco State last weekend, winning the series opener (4-3) and finale (7-6) while dropping the middle games, 6-0 and 5-3, respectively. 
• Paige Donnelly led the Cougars with a .538 batting average, seven hits, five RBIs, .846 slugging percentage and two walks. 

BY THE NUMBERS

• The Cougars moved down to No. 19 in the most recent NFCA Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll.
• CSUSM remains in the second spot in the CCAA standings, two and a half games behind leader Sonoma State (22-4, 16-3 CCAA). 
• The Cougars continue to rank second in the CCAA with a .297 batting average, behind leader Sonoma State's .321. 
• With Donnelly's and Jillian Albayati's home runs this past weekend, CSUSM's total moved to 13 which is the second highest in the CCAA. 
• The Cougars lead the CCAA in triples per game (0.26) with Madison Waymire recording a conference-leading three this season and ranking 51st in the nation. 
• CSUSM is averaging 1.30 doubles per game, ranking third in the conference.
• Albayati is leading the CCAA in home runs per game at 0.20 while ranking second in slugging percentage (.721) and walks per game (0.56). 
• In the CCAA's toughest to strikeout category, Albayati ranks fourth at 22.7 while Bianca Gutierrez is sixth 22.0. 
• Savannah Coyle is fourth in the CCAA with a 1.03 WHIP average. 
• Paige Donnelly has been beaned four times this season, ranking her third in the CCAA.

2023 NFCA PLAYER OF THE YEAR WATCHLIST

• For the second consecutive season, Paige Donnelly getting national recognition after being named to the 2023 Tucci/NFCA DII Player & Pitcher of the Year Watchlist. 
• Donnelly is in the top 10 in the CCAA in seven categories – third in RBIs (21), third in hit-by-pitch (4), fourth in batting average (.380), sixth in home runs (4), sixth in slugging percentage (.595), sixth in on-base percentage (.476) and ninth in hits (30). 
• Donnelly is the only returning NFCA All-American in the West Region. 
• Voted on by the NFCA's Division II All-American Committee, the 2023 Tucci/NFCA Player and Pitcher of the Year will be announced on June 1. All student-athletes are eligible for the end-of-the-season award and do not have to be on this list to be considered.
• The Player of the Year award was created in 2015 to honor the outstanding athletic achievements among softball student-athletes throughout NCAA Division II. In 2019, the Association expanded the award to include a Player and Pitcher of the Year.

 

GAMES 28-29 | CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY IRVINE
Date	Friday, March 31
Times	1 p.m. (DH)
Location	San Marcos, Calif.
Venue	CSUSM Softball Field
Records	CSUSM (18-9) CUI (26-6)
Live Stats	SideArm Stats
Live Video ($)	CCAA Network

 

TOP 20 SHOWDOWN

• The Cougars handed then-No. 2 Concordia University Irvine its first twinbill sweep of the 2022 season on April 9. Biola was the only other team to defeat the Golden Eagles in back-to-back games that season, doing so on April 23 with shutout games of 2-0 and 3-0. 
• The Golden Eagles have been steadily moving up the NFCA national rankings after beginning the season at No. 19. This week, CUI broke into the top 10 at No. 9. 
• CUI is 8-2 against common opponents with CSUSM with both the Golden Eagles and Cougars falling to Western Oregon 2-1 at the CUI Kickoff. 
• The Golden Eagles are on top of the PacWest standings and have a four-game lead over second-place Dominican. 
• CUI is 12-2 on the road this season. 
• The Golden Eagles had last weekend off with their most recent games being a twinbill sweep, 3-2 (10 inn.) and 1-0, at Biola on March 18. 
• CSUSM is 11-21 in the all-time series against CUI and 4-10 against the Golden Eagles when playing at home. 
• In their inaugural season, the Cougars defeated CUI 8-3 in nine innings for CSUSM's first victory in program history on Feb. 3, 2007 in Irvine. Current CSUSM Director of Athletics Jennifer Milo was the softball head coach at the time. 
• The Golden Eagles are the NCAA Division II leader with a 0.98 ERA this season. 
• CUI ranks second in Division II with 15 shutouts this season. 
• The Golden Eagles lead the PacWest in six categories – 22 home run, 0.69 home runs per game, .371 on-base percentage, 4.78 runs per game, 0.98 WHIP and .435 slugging percentage. 
• Daniela Alvarez ranks fifth in the nation with a 0.68 ERA while Courtney Koelmans and Kaitlin Entrup are 13th and 14th with 0.88 and 0.90 ERAs, respectively. 
• Kaia Nisby is the fourth-toughest batter to strikeout out in the nation with just one strikeout in 68 at bats. 
• The Golden Eagles were picked to repeat as PacWest Regular-Season Conference Champions in the 2023 PacWest Preseason Softball Poll. 

 

GAMES 30-31 | BIOLA
Date	Saturday, April 1
Times	12 p.m. (DH)
Location	La Mirada, Calif.
Venue	Freedom Field
Records	CSUSM (18-9) Biola (17-12)
Live Stats	SideArm Stats
Live Video ($)	CCAA Network

 

BIOLA BREAKDOWN

• CSUSM and Biola last met at the 2020 CUI Kickoff Classic with the Eagles coming out on top at 6-5. 
• The Cougars hold a 19-17 lead in the all-time series against Biola and are 11-8 when playing at Freedom Field. 
• Since moving to Division II in 2018, Biola has won all three meetings with two one-run wins (2-1, 6-5) and the third game going 10 innings with a 7-5 result. 
• CSUSM won 15 consecutive games between 2010 and 2014 with six of those games being shutouts. 
• Biola is currently third in the PacWest Conference standings, one game behind second-place Dominican and five games behind leader CUI. 
• On Friday, the Eagles will be play a doubleheader at No. 23 Cal State Dominguez Hills. 
• Biola enters the weekend on a five-game losing streak, dropping doubleheaders at Azusa Pacific (8-4, 2-1) and against then-No. 12 CUI (1-0, 3-2 (10 inn.) after falling 7-4 in the twinbill nightcap to Pace on March 16. 
• The Eagles are 5-8 at home this season
• Biola has split doubleheaders against three CCAA teams this season – San Francisco State, Cal State Monterey Bay and Cal State San Bernardino. 
• The Eagles lead the PacWest with a .309 batting average, ranking 70th in the nation. 
• Biola has been hit by pitches a conference-high 25 times this season, ranking 27th in Division II. 
• The Eagles have hit only two home runs this season, ranking them 250 out of 261 teams across the nation. 
• Colby McClinton has the 12th-best batting average (.495) and the eighth-best on-base percentage (.577) in the nation. 
• Biola was picked to finish second in the 2022 PacWest Preseason Softball Coaches Poll.

    

COUGAR OUTLOOK

• CSUSM has 17 returners for the 2023 season, including 2022 All-CCAA honorees Paige Donnelly (first team), Savannah Coyle (first team), Bianca Gutierrez (first team) and Jayline Sloss (second team). 
• The Cougars will have seven newcomers this season with six freshmen and one transfer.
• Athletically, the Cougars are made up of 13 redshirt sophomores, five true sophomores and six true freshmen.
• CSUSM was picked to repeat as conference champions in the 2023 CCAA Preseason Coaches Poll.

 
THE EWING FILE

• 2022 CCAA Coach of the Year Stef Ewing enters her fifth season in charge of the Cougar softball season.
• The Cougars finished the 2022 historic season surpassing all expectations by winning the program's first CCAA Regular-Season Championship with a 28-8 conference record while going 45-14 overall and hosting the NCAA West and Super West Regional as the top seed. 
• In her four seasons, she has coached two NFCA All-American third team selections, seven All-CCAA honorees (three first team selections), a CCAA Newcomer of the Year and CCAA Freshman of the Year. 
• Ewing captured her first win as a collegiate head coach on Feb. 17, 2019 as the Cougars recorded a walk-off 5-4 victory over Concordia Portland at CSUSM Softball Field.
• Ewing has complied a 84-66 (.560) in her five seasons at CSUSM. 
• She previously served as the assistant coach at New Mexico State where she helped the Aggies to three WAC Regular Season Conference Championships and two WAC Conference Tournament Championships.