PROVO – The Grand Canyon softball program ended its 2017 campaign on Wednesday night in Utah, falling to No. 20 BYU 6-0. The Lopes were held to no runs on two hits by the Cougars defense and pitching staff while the long ball hurt GCU as BYU had two, two-run home runs. One to start the game and one to finish it as the 2017 season comes to a close.
Camree Wartman and
Jenna Coates were the two Lopes that had hits on the day.
Shea Smith reached base after getting hit by a pitch.
Brianna Aguilar-Beaucage was tagged with the loss dropping her record to 12-7 for the year. She went 3.0 innings, gave up four hits and two runs.
BYU went up early with a home run in the first inning to put the Cougars up 2-0. Aguilar-Beaucage shut down the Cougars offense for the next two innings before being relieved by
Taylor Nowlin.
Nowlin gave up two runs in her first inning of work but then she hit her stride. The left-handed senior struck out the side in the fifth inning racking up three of her four strikeouts on the day.
The Cougars put the game away in the sixth with a two-run home run to put the final score at 6-0. The Lopes offense faced a daunting task from the start due to BYU pitcher McKenna Bull. Bull increased her program record scoreless streak to 43.2 innings.
The Grand Canyon University Lopes end the year with a record of 36-18 and 11-4 in the WAC. The conference mark was good enough to earn them the WAC Co-Championship crown.