Antelopes Earn DH Sweep of Azusa Pacific

Saturday, April 27

Azusa, CA

12:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Azusa Pacific

Haley Walker drove in six runs in GCU's 9-4 game one win of a doubleheader sweep of Azusa Pacific Saturday.

Photo by: Theon Carrier

4/27/2013 6:08:00 PM | Softball

Grand Canyon, ranked No. 18 nationally in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Poll and No. 2 in the NCAA West Region standings, swept a doubleheader from host Azusa Pacific at Cougar Softball Complex in Azusa, Calif., Saturday.

With the sweep, GCU split the four-game Pacific West Conference series. The Antelopes are 38-14 overall and 21-7 in the PacWest. They are tied for second in the conference, one game behind first-place Dixie State. GCU takes on the Red Storm in St. George, Utah next weekend for a four-game regular-season ending series. Hawai’i Hilo is also 21-7 in the conference and plays a doubleheader Sunday at Chaminade and finishes the season with a home doubleheader against Hawai’i Pacific. Notre Dame de Namur ended its PacWest season today at 23-9.

“It’s going to come down to the last series,” said GCU coach Ann Pierson. “We’ll have to play like our hairs on fire and see how it shakes out.”

On Saturday, the Antelopes won handily, taking the first game 9-4 and the second game, in only five innings, 12-1.

Stephanie Pesqueira (20-8) was the winning pitcher in both games and became only the second 20-game winner in program history. Ivy Campas won 23 in 2010. Pesqueira also upped her season strikeout total to 113, just five shy of the single-season school record of 118 set by Malia Simmons (2006).

It was a day that saw two other single-season records erased. Sophomore center fielder Kayla Henry, hitting .428 for the season, set a new mark for hits in a season with 83. She had one hit in each game Saturday. The old record was 81 set by Tracy Lubken (2009). With a stolen base in game two, Henry broke the single-season stolen base record. She has 27 breaking the old mark of 26 co-held by Teddy Barry (2010) and Nikki Lorenzi (2010).

Henry extended her hitting streak to 15, the longest current streak. Claire Zampini, who had her school-record 18-game streak ended Friday, bounced back with a 4-for-8 day, including 3-for-4 in game two with two RBIs and a run scored.

In game one, GCU trailed 3-0 before scoring four in the fifth inning. Through four innings, GCU had just one hit and two baserunners, both coming in the fourth. Haley Walker hit a two-run single, scoring Nicole Upshaw, who had been hit by pitch, and Pesqueira, who had reached on a walk, for GCU’s first two runs. Zampini had an RBI-single to tie the game, plating Nicole Newbury, who singled prior to Walker. Back-to-back walks to Kelsey Barak and Kailey Regester gave the Antelopes the lead.

GCU scored five more runs; four were driven in by Walker, who hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth and a three-run triple in the seventh. Walker tied a GCU high for RBIs in a game with six. Lauren Regester had six RBIs against Western Washington in Las Vegas, Nev., Feb. 9.

“It was a much better day today,” said Pierson. “They scored early on (Pesqueira) but she locked in and our bats got going.”
In game two, again, GCU took advantage of a couple big innings. Down 1-0, the Antelopes scored eight runs on nine hits in the third then, scored four more in the fifth. Newbury went 3-for-3 and scored twice. Walker added on to her great day by going 2-for-3 with a pair of runs. Barak also had two hits and two RBIs.

Pesqueira threw shutout innings of relief to earn the game two victory.

After having just one hit in their first four innings of the day, the ’Lopes finished with 23 hits in their final eight at-bats.

GCU 9, APU 4
GCU 12, APU 1 (five innings)