Bishop bombs give Lopes 2

Friday, April 5

Phoenix, Ariz.

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

24-14, 0

CSU Bakersfield

13-17, 0

CSU Bakersfield

Grand Canyon

4/5/2019 9:06:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

GCU plates 9 against Roadrunners; Lopes take 3rd WAC series

By: Fletcher Like

The Grand Canyon softball team topped CSU Bakersfield in both games of a doubleheader at GCU Softball Stadium on Friday to extend the conference series win streak to three. The Lopes (25-14, 7-1 WAC) won the opener 3-2 before blanking the Roadrunners (13-18, 2-3 WAC) 6-0 in the nightcap.

Sophomore Lilly Bishop paced the Lopes with two home runs and four RBIs, all coming in Game 2.

GCU starting pitchers Ryan Denhart (8-3) and Yessie Morrison (8-4) each picked up a win, while junior Brianna Aguilar and sophomore Lexy Coons picked up saves.

GAME 1
The top of the order came up big for the Lopes in Game 1, accounting for six of GCU's seven hits and all three runs as the Lopes squeaked out a 3-2 win over the Roadrunners. Freshman second baseman Savannah Tourville led the Lopes with two hits and two RBIs.

Denhart threw six masterful innings for GCU before exiting in the seventh in favor of Aguilar. Denhart struck out three in her outing, allowing two earned runs on four hits. Aguilar entered with two runners on and gave up just one hit as the junior picked up her second save of the season.

The Lopes started the scoring in the first inning on one hit and a pair of errors.

GCU tacked on a pair of two-out runs in the third inning on two hits and another Bakersfield error. Freshman first baseman Taylor Olsen reached second on a fielding error by the CSUB shortstop and was plated on a double off the center field wall by senior shortstop Shea Smith. Tourville picked up her second RBI of the game on a single up the middle to score Smith.

GAME 2
GCU opened the offensive flood gates in the second game of the night, putting up a crooked number in two separate innings. The Lopes shut out an opponent for the 13th time in 2019.

In the second inning, Tourville led off the inning getting hit by a pitch on her hands. A one-out moon shot from Bishop made it 2-0 GCU.

The Lopes went on to score a run in the third and fourth inning.

In the third, a two-out walk to Shea Smith and back-to-back singles from Tourville and senior left fielder Maddie Dowdle pushed Smith across.

In the fourth, a pair of walks to sophomore catcher Kaylee Dietrich and sophomore center fielder Taylor Tetone put Dietrich in scoring position for senior third baseman Sierra Smith who singled to left field to score freshman pinch runner Gianna Nicoletti.

In the fifth inning, Dowdle led-off with a single and Bishop followed that up with her second two-homer game of her career.

Morrison threw four scoreless innings, working around four hits. Coons entered in the fifth inning and gave up four hits in three innings of work to pick up the save.