Antelopes Win Two At Leadoff Classic

Friday, February 15

Tucson, AZ

10 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Abilene Christian

Kayla Henry and the top of the GCU order had a big day in a pair of wins at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Tucson, Friday.

Photo by: Theon Carrier

2/15/2013 5:56:00 PM | Softball

Beat No. 22 Abilene Christian

Grand Canyon improved to 11-2 with two wins during the opening day of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division II Leadoff Classic in Tucson, Friday.

GCU beat No. 22 Abilene Christian – which like GCU will be moving up to NCAA Division I next season – 5-2 and downed Nova Southeastern 6-2.

The Antelopes will play Texas Woman’s (10 a.m.) and Regis (noon) Saturday. The tournament ends Sunday with bracket play.

Against Abilene Christian, the Antelopes scored all of their runs in the first two innings. In the first, Kayla Henry and Claire Zampini opened with singles and Kelsey Barak was hit by a pitch. A wild pitch scored Henry. After a single by Lauren Regester, Zampini and Barak were each retired at home on a pair of fielder’s choice plays. Regester scored the second run on the second wild pitch of the inning.

The Antelopes added three in the second. Haley Walker, who earlier this week was selected to the Desert Stinger All-Tournament team, reached on a one-out error and Henry got on with a walk. Zampini sacrificed both runners up, prior to Barak’s two-run double. A Regester single scored Barak.

Stephanie Pesqueira (4-1) earned the victory, scattering 11 hits, while striking out six. She walked one and hit one batter. The Wildcats left 12 on base.

Regester had three of GCU’s nine hits. Henry had two and scored twice.

In the win over Nova Southeastern, GCU took advantage of five Nova errors, while pitcher Kiki Sepulveda (4-0) gave up only four hits and one walk. She had two strikeouts.

"Pesky and Kiki threw really well," said GCU coach Ann Pierson. "Kiki kept them off balance and let her defense do the work. Pesky threw well, too, and got out of a couple of jams. Our defense was outstanding both games."

Again, the Antelopes scored early, getting two in the first and one in the second. The lead grew to 6-0 with a three-run fourth.

Henry scored three times and had two hits, including her third triple of the season. She opened scoring in the first with a single and stolen base. She moved to third on a bunt single by Zampini and scored after back-to-back walks to Barak and Regester. When Nicole Newbury reached on an error, Barak came across with the second run of the inning.

Henry scored the lone run in the second. She reached on a one-out walk, advanced to second on an error, to third on a second Nova error and scored on a sac fly by Regester.

"When people give you extra outs you have to push them across and we were able to do that," Pierson said.

Again, Henry got the motor running in the fourth. She led off with a triple and scored on a Zampini ground out. Barak singled and moved up two bases on a pair of Nova miscues. She scored on a Nicole Upshaw single. Sepulveda, who had earlier reached on an error scored on a Newbury single.

"One through four in the order were on fire," added Pierson. "We always love it when we get our rabbits on and the big kids hit them in.

"We also had a lot of hard hit balls from the entire order. Overall, our approach at the plate was really good and aggressive."

GCU’s defense had just two errors on the day, one in each game.

"The kids rose to the challenge and played well today," Pierson said.

GCU 5, ACU 2
GCU 6, NSU 2