Grand Canyon Finishes Second in Top Bracket at Tournament of Champions

Sunday, April 1

Turlock, CA

12:15 p.m.

Grand Canyon

CSU San Bernardino

Kara Holtorf became Grand Canyon's all-time leader in stolen bases at the Tournament of Champions in Turlock, Calif.

Grand Canyon Finishes Second in Top Bracket at Tournament of Champions

4/1/2012 6:14:00 PM | Softball

Grand Canyon lost 6-5 to No. 16 CSU Monterey Bay in the championship game of the Gold Bracket at the Tournament of Champions in Turlock, Calif., Sunday.

GCU (24-13) earned the Gold (Championship) Bracket berth by winning its pool. The Antelopes were 3-2 in pool play, and then beat CSU San Bernardino 12-4, in five innings, earlier Sunday, to reach the championship game.

There were 24 teams in the tournament. Sunday’s loss to CSUMB was GCU’s second of the tournament. It lost to the Otters in pool play Friday.

"I'm really pleased with our weekend," said GCU coach Ann Pierson. "To go 4-3, get to the championship game, and the competition we faces, I'm very proud of the girls.

"To play that many games on a short weekend, our focus and attitude was outstanding. We just really wanted to compete and we had help from everybody."

Grand Canyon battled back from a 6-1 deficit, scoring four runs in the sixth inning.

Freshman Nicole Upshaw started the sixth with a single and advance to third on an error by the center fielder. Pinch-hitter Claire Zampini hit a one-out single to score Upshaw and moved up to second on a Kayla Henry base-hit. Both Zampini and Henry scored on Haley Walker's first double of the season. Walker scored on a single by Stephanie Smith.

GCU was trailing 2-0 in the third when Smith hit a two-out single, advancing to third on an error by the right fielder. She scored on a single by Kara Holtorf, who extended her season-best hitting streak to 10 games.

The Antelopes out-hit CSMUB 13-8 and left 10 runners on base. The Otters left 13 on base. GCU used three pitchers, Kiley Raica, Brittany Manzoline and Danielle Legee. Raica suffered the loss to fall to 13-6.

In the win over CSU San Bernardino, Grand Canyon took advantage of seven Coyote errors. The ’Lopes trailed 2-0 after one-half inning, but answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. The Coyotes put across two in the second, but GCU scored the next 10 runs, four in the second and six in the third.

CSUSB out-hit GCU 9-8.

For the Antelopes, Upshaw and Holtorf each had two hits. Holtorf stole a base, the 49th of her career to become the program’s all-time leader in stolen bases. It was Holtorf’s team-best 13th two-hit game of the season. Henry, Walker, Kelsey Barak and Lauren Regester each had hits.

Kiki Sepulveda threw a five-inning complete game victory to improve to 8-3.

Holtorf and Upshaw were selected to the Tournament of Champions All-Tournament Team. Holtorf hit .522 (12-for-23) with seven runs scored, four RBI and three stolen bases. Upshaw hit .348 with two doubles and a team-best seven RBI, Holtorf ranked second in hits and Upshaw was fifth in the tournament in runs batted in.

"Very well-deserved. They did a great job," added Pierson.

The TOC marked the final non-PacWest games of the season. GCU, 1.5 games behind California Baptist for the PacWest lead, has 18 games remaining; the next 12 are on the road, including four conference games (two doubleheaders) at Dominican, Apr. 6-7. GCU goes to California Baptist Apr. 13-14.

GCU 12, CSUSB 4 (5 inn.)
CSUMB 6, GCU 5 (Championship)