Games #50 & 51
ART U Urban Knights (9-40, 6-20 PacWest) vs. Biola Eagles (22-17, 15-11 PacWest)
Thursday, April 28, 2022 at Noon & 2 p.m.
Brisbane, Calif. – Mission Blue Field
Live Stats & Live Video

Games #52 & 53
ART U Urban Knights (9-40, 6-20 PacWest) vs. Biola Eagles (22-17, 15-11 PacWest)
Friday, April 28, 2022 at Noon & 2 p.m.
Brisbane, Calif. – Mission Blue Field
Live Stats & Live Video

KNIGHTS AND EAGLES MEET FOR FIRST TIME OVER FINAL FOUR GAMES OF 2022
Coming off a dramatic walk-off victory over Holy Names on Senior Day this past weekend, Academy of Art softball is now set to close out the year hosting Biola for its last Pacific West Conference series.

FIRST PITCH
Back at Mission Blue Field for the final two gamedays of the season this week, ART U hosts Biola this Thursday, Apr. 28 and Friday, Apr. 29 with doubleheaders on both days beginning at noon. Remember to follow @ARTU_Knights via the athletics app (Apple App Store, Google Play Store) and on Twitter & Instagram, as well as "Like" the Urban Knights on Facebook for score updates, videos, and recaps.

KNIGHT WATCH
One double shy of third in the PacWest in total doubles (49), Academy of Art has been led most recently by the hot bat of senior catcher/infielder Lauryn Henderson, the PacWest Player of the Week, who is hitting .448 (13-for-29) over her last nine games, bringing her season batting average to a team-best .336 (ninth in PacWest). She has added two homers, four runs batted in, three doubles, a triple, and nine runs scored during that span while breaking the program record in career homers along the way. The Game Development major is second in the conference with 14 doubles and is currently tied with two former Urban Knights atop two other career categories including doubles (42) and walks (77).

Just behind Henderson's 24 runs scored are the 23 times sophomore infielder Haley Randall has touched home plate. She is one of three Knights hitting over .300 at .313, adding nine doubles and two home runs. The third above .300 is senior catcher Alyssa Brundage (.303) who comes off a memorable Senior Day where she went 2-for-2 with a double that drove in the winning run in game two. Junior catcher/utility Cassandra Mittman lies not far from the .300 threshold, hitting .292 with the second-most RBIs on the team at 15 while, ahead of her, sophomore pitcher/infielder Katie Humphreys has driven in 18 (ranked 16th in PacWest) and most recently hit her first career homer on Apr. 24. Top five in the conference in the category, senior utility Alyssa Rasmussen paces ART U with 14 thefts in 17 attempts.

In the circle, sophomore pitcher Jolene Rhoades (6-17) leads the squad with 123.1 innings pitched (sixth in PacWest) while junior pitcher Haley Arnold-Jolley (2-15) is just back of Rhoades with 117.1 innings of work (seventh in the PacWest). Rhoades' 44 strikeouts are the 11th-most in the conference.

EAGLES FLYING HIGH
Currently third in the PacWest standings with a 15-11 conference record (22-17 overall), Biola has enjoyed two win streaks of four or more games this season, but had run into a rough patch losing four straight in early April before besting No. 7 Concordia in a pair of shutouts on Apr. 23 most recently. For an Eagles team that leads the PacWest in strikeouts (261) and is second in ERA (2.16), the tandem of Paige Austin (12-5) and Raylene Roybal (8-8) combined for just seven hits allowed, two walks, and 16 strikeouts in their 14.0 scoreless innings against CUI. Austin is second in the PacWest with a 0.84 ERA and leads the conference with 175 strikeouts (21st in NCAA DII) while Jennifer Morinishi leads BU with a .369 batting average (fifth in PacWest), 23 runs scored, nine doubles, and 13 RBIs. Meeting just six times since their first matchup in 2018, Eagles lead the Knights 5-1 historically.

BRUNDAGE, HENDERSON COMBINE TO WALK OFF SENIOR DAY SPLIT
It couldn't have been a more fitting ending to Senior Day on Apr. 24 as Academy of Art softball used back-to-back doubles from senior catcher/infielder Lauryn Henderson and senior catcher Alyssa Brundage to walk off 5-4 winners in game two of a Pacific West Conference split with Holy Names. Friends and family celebrated senior utility Alyssa Rasmussen, Brundage, and Henderson prior to the first pitch of game one, which the Hawks took 7-1, then a tie game was broken up in the bottom of the seventh inning as Henderson and Brundage combined to go 5-for-6 with three doubles, three runs scored, and two runs batted in with the last the difference in the 5-4 victory at Mission Blue Field.