Lopes out-hit Northwestern, but fall just short

Saturday, March 18

Santa Clara, Calif.

11:30 a.m.

Grand Canyon

24-6

Lehigh

8-14

LEHIGH

Grand Canyon

3/18/2017 7:37:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Imani Suber

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The Grand Canyon softball program fought valiantly against Northwestern. The Lopes out-hit the Wildcats 8-to-5, coming just shy of overcoming the 4-2 deficit.

Earlier in the day GCU suffered a 4-2 loss to Lehigh. After today's contests the Lopes fall to 24-7 on the season.

How it Happened

Game 1 | Lehigh

The Lopes suffered a tough loss to Lehigh in the first game of the day. While GCU struggled on both sides of the ball, Lehigh got on the board first in the second after a Lope walk to take the early lead.

The Lopes evened the tally at 1-1 as a result of a Madelyn Dowdle RBI single plating Sierra Smith who landed on base off a single.

Lehigh answered once again in the sixth off consecutive hits that gave the Mountain Hawks the 2-1 advantage. Lehigh would continue the pressure in the final frame putting together a two run, four hit inning to extend its lead to 4-1 in the final frame.

But, the Lopes wouldn't go quietly putting together an encouraging rally. GCU started with back to back hits from Shea Smith and Laynee Gomez to immediately threaten. Stevens followed with a walk to load the bases with Wartman heading to the plate. While Wartman popped up to right field, Gomez flew over the plate cutting the lead to two at 4-2. But that was the closest GCU would come as they failed to capitalize with two left stranded.

Dowdle led at the plate going 2-for-2 with one RBI and a walk.

In the circle, Brianna Aguilar-Beaucage, pitched a complete game allowing four runs (3 ER) and three strikeouts.

Game 2 | Northwestern

GCU showed grit and fight in its close loss to Northwestern Saturday night. The Lopes rallied from four down to cut the Wildcat lead to two before suffering the loss.

While innings one and two were quiet, Northwestern got the best of the Lopes in the third. The Wildcats put together a four run, four hit inning to take a 4-0 lead.

The Lopes continued to battle stringing hits together in innings four and five before successfully plating a pair of runs in the sixth.

Bianca Boling started the rally with a pinch-single. Gonzalez followed with a bullet through the left side to ignite the offense. Although Wartman reached on the fielder's choice, knocking Gonzalez out at third, Dowdle followed with strong RBI single to bring the tally to 4-1. Kendsey Hill followed with a single and the Lopes made NU pay for an errant throw as runners advanced and Wartman bolted for the plate. The Lopes finished the inning down by just two at 4-2.

It came down to the final frame as Nowlin and the defense quickly got out of the sixth inning with a 6-4-3 double play to get GCU's bats back up. The Lopes just couldn't muster enough to overcome the deficit falling to Northwestern in a hard-fought contest.

Hill led all Lopes with a 3-for-3 perfect day at the plate. Niki Gonzalez also impressed going 3-for-2 with a walk.

In the circle, Taylor Nowlin pitched a complete game, allowing six hits, four earned runs, with two strikeouts.

Lopes Quotes
Head coach Ann Pierson
I saw some positive improvements, especially in Game 2. We just need to stay with our fundamental plan and play to our capabilities. I've seen us press this weekend and that doesn't work in our teams personality. I think we're learning from this weekend and we'll run back out there tomorrow and put our best game out there.

Up Next
The Lopes closed out Santa Clara Round Robin play against Santa Clara tomorrow at 2 p.m. MST