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Grand Canyon University Athletics
GCU finishes 3rd following battles with Dixie State
4/26/2008 11:22:47 PM | Softball
Softball
4-26-08
GCU finishes 3rd following battles with Dixie State
They deserved a better fate, these Antelope diamond girls. But after scratching their way back from deficits in the late innings of both games, Grand Canyon fell to Dixie State 10-8 in eight innings and 12-8 Saturday to close the season.
Grand Canyon finished third in the Pacific West Conference with a 24-25-1 overall record and 14-10 league mark. Dixie State (27-23, 16-8) finished second.
GCU led by a run entering the seventh inning, but DSC scored twice to take a 7-6 lead in the top of the seventh. Grand Canyon tied it in the bottom half of the inning when Randi Johns hit her 11th home run of the year to send it into extra innings.
Dixie State scored three runs in the eighth, and Grand Canyon cut it to 10-8 on an infield single by Tana Holtorf. But the Antelopes couldn't push another run across with the bases loaded.
GCU starter Megan Niver, pitching her final collegiate game, suffered the loss. Niver went the distance, and finished the season with 12-13 record.
Dixie's Brittnie Whipple got the win in relief. Starter Haley Schumers worked 6 1/3 innings, allowing nine hits, five earned runs and a walk, while striking out five.
Holtorf was 3 for 4 with three RBI. Yasmeen Watkins went 2 for 5, crushing her school season-record 13th home run, and driving in three runs. Johns was 2 for 3 with an RBI. Justine Williams, who finished the season with a 10-game hitting streak to match team highs set by Holtorf and Watkins, was 3 for 4.
In the final game, the Antelopes scored five runs on five hits in the fourth to take a one-run lead. The Rebels responded with two in the fifth to go back up 6-5. The Lopes answered with three runs in the sixth on a two-run single down the right field line by Holtorf, and a run-scoring single up the middle by Johns to regain control, 8-6. But Dixie batted around, scoring six runs in the seventh to take a four-run lead, and GCU couldn't recover.
Grand Canyon's Michelle Farrell (pictured left) pitched her final game in Purple and Black, going the distance in the loss. Whipple got the win, re-entering after the Antelopes chased reliever Jessie Dunn.
Johns went 2 for 4, connecting on her 12th home run of the year, and driving in two runs. Watkins (pictured right) was 2 for 3 with a double. Williams went 1 for 3 with two RBI. Holtorf was 1 for 4 with two RBI. Strohm Fouty was 1 for 3 with an RBI.
Dixie's Marcy Rollins was 3 for 4 with four RBI, Shantae Hunter went 3 for 5, and Schumers was 2 for 3 with a home run. Mesa's Carli Jones was 1 for 4, hitting her 19th home run of the year. She homered in both games.
Williams spiked her batting average to .338. Watkins hit a team-best .405 with 11 doubles and 62 RBI. Fouty finished with a team-high 64 hits and a school season record 24 stolen bases. Johns hit .367 with nine doubles and 42 RBI. Holtorf batted .324 with 13 doubles and 35 RBI.
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