Lopes Drop Pair of Games at Utah

Friday, May 9

Salt Lake City, UT

4:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

27-19

Utah

29-24

Grand Canyon

Utah

Claire Zampini finished a perfect 4-for-4 at the dish in game one Friday.

Photo by: Theon Carrier

5/9/2014 9:33:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

GCU will conclude 2014 season with single game Saturday

The Grand Canyon University softball team (27-20, 12-3 WAC) dropped a pair of games against Utah (30-24, 8-15 Pac 12) on Friday at the Utah Softball Stadium in Salt Lake City. In the series opener, the Antelopes fell in a high-scoring affair, 13-11, before being defeated 10-1 in a five-inning contest in the nightcap. Friday marked the first time GCU has lost back-to-back games since March 20.

"It was a disappointing way to open the weekend," said head coach Ann Pierson. "It was good to see us fight back in game one and to put pressure on them but we gave up too many free bases tonight. I felt good about our defense as a whole and we put together some good at-bats."

Game One
The host Utes overcame five errors to defeat GCU in game one. Utah pushed across a pair of runs in each of the first two innings to jump out to an early 4-0 lead in Friday's opener.

The Lopes answered in the top of the third, scoring four times in the frame to even the score at four apiece. Claire Zampini opened the inning with a bunt-single and then came around to score to put GCU on the board. Later in the inning, Kelsey Barak picked up her team-leading 40^th RBI, smashing a pitch into left-center, scoring Haley Walker and Kayla Henry. Barak, who advanced to third on a Nicole Newbury groundout, scored after she was granted home for a Utah illegal pitch to knot the game at 4-4.

Canyon tacked on three more runs in the top of the fourth to take the lead, 7-4. Stephanie Pesqueira scored on a Kayla Henry RBI single and then Lauren Regester laced a two-out single, scoring Henry and Zampini to make the score 7-4 in favor of the Lopes.

Utah scored five times in the bottom of the fourth to regain the lead and then the home team pushed across three more in the bottom of the fifth to extend their lead to 12-7.

GCU scratched across a run in the top of the sixth after Lauren Regester picked up her third RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Zampini and cutting the deficit to 12-8.

The Lopes rallied in the top of the seventh, plating three runs before their rally was halted. Camree Wartman, playing in her home state of Utah, tattooed a ball over the left-center fence. With the solo shot, the freshman infielder now has five round-trippers on the year. Henry, who finished with three hits, tallied another RBI single and Walker scored on a throwing error for Grand Canyon's three runs.

Pesqueira suffered her first loss in the circle since March 20, dropping her record to 15-8.

Zampini finished a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate in the opener and Barak extended her hitting streak to 12 games with a pair of hits.

Game Two
After connecting on 13 hits in game one, the Lopes were held to just two hits in Friday's second game.

GCU picked up its lone run of the game in the top of the fifth when Camree Wartman scored on a Claire Zampini RBI groundout.

Taylor Nowlin was tagged with the loss in the circle, moving her record to 5-6 on the season. Senior Janelle Christman and freshman Bailey Bergman each made their first relief appearance of the season in the circle in game two.

Kiki Sepulveda and Nicole Newbury posted Canyon's hits at the dish, recording a base knock each.

"We need to come out tomorrow and be a lot more intense from the beginning and be very specific in what we want to do and how we want to end our season," concluded Pierson.

The Lopes will close out the 2014 season Saturday with an 11 a.m. (Arizona Time) contest against the Utes. Fans can find links to follow the action from the series and season finale by visiting www.gculopes.com.

Utah 13, GCU 11
Utah 10, GCU 1