Golden leads series-opening split at CBU

Friday, April 28

Riverside, Calif.

4 p.m.

Grand Canyon

38-11, 12-7

California Baptist

27-22, 10-9

Grand Canyon

California Baptist

4/28/2023 11:14:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

GCU pitcher allows 1 earned run in complete game to even series

By: Adrianna Candelaria

RIVERSIDE, Calif. —The Grand Canyon softball team (39-11, 13-7 WAC) evened the series with California Baptist (27-23, 10-10 WAC) after sophomore Meghan Golden threw nearly five innings of no-hit ball before notching a complete-game win Friday night.

GCU takes Game 2 at CBU

The Lopes posted an 8-2 victory over the Lancers in the Friday doubleheader's nightcap, holding CBU hitless and scoreless until a two-out rallly in the fifth inning. GCU dropped eight runs before CBU managed to put a run on the board.

Golden, now 11-2, finished her sixth complete game of the season with 14 fly outs and five strikeouts while allowing six hits and one walk. The Peoria, Arizona, native leads the WAC in ERA (1.89), and strikeouts (105).

Five hits quickly became four runs for the Lopes in the top of the first, as senior center fielder Hannah Burnett and senior right fielder Kristin Fifield both singled up the middle to lead off the game. The Lopes then walked in their first run when junior shortstop Katelyn Dunckel and senior designated player Ramsay Lopez boarded the bases with four balls apiece.

With the bases loaded, junior first baseman Kaitlyn Brannstrom singled to left field for an RBI, and senior third baseman Madison Schaefer hit a sacrifice fly for the Lopes; third run of the game. But it was senior catcher Kinsey Koeltzow who posted a two-run double to right center for GCU's fourth and fifth runs.

In the top of the fourth frame, sophomore second baseman Lovey Kepa'a recorded her first hit of the season, and advanced to second base on a single by Burnett. With two on and one out, Fifield crushed her 18th home run of the season, a three-run blast that brought her nation-leading RBI total to 69 and boosted the Lopes lead to 8-0.

Nearly run-ruled in the fifth, the Lancers managed their first hits of the game and scored an unearned run to stay alive. CBU scored a second run on a series of base hits in the seventh inning.

Lopes fall to 4 unanswered Lancer runs

GCU struck first, opening the series with an RBI single from junior shortstop Katelyn Dunckel and forcing an up-and-down bottom half for the Lancers to assert a 1-0 lead.

After a scoreless second inning for both teams, senior designated playerRamsay Lopez cleared the bases with a single up the middle to send speedy senior right fielder Kristin Fifield and Dunckel home in the top of the third. However, in a bases-loaded bottom frame, CBU knocked in two runs to pull within one.

Senior pitcher Ariel Thompson and the Lopes stranded seven Lancers on base to maintain their 3-2 lead through the top of the sixth but were met with the tying run when CBU reached base on a single, and GCU allowed its third triple of the season.

In what looked to be a promising final inning, the Lopes left the bases loaded before the Lancers hit consecutive seventh-inning doubles for a Game 1 walk-off win.

GCU and CBU will face off in a WAC series rubber match on Saturday at 5 p.m. (Phoenix time).