Golden's 1-hitter clinches 1st WAC series win

Saturday, March 18

Huntsville, Texas

10 a.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

23-4, 2-1

Sam Houston

10-20, 1-2

Grand Canyon

Sam Houston

3/18/2023 7:23:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

GCU wins 6-1 in series' rubber match at Sam Houston

By: Adrianna Candelaria

Grand Canyon sophomore pitcher Meghan Golden pitched a one-hit complete game Saturday to lead the Lopes to a 6-1 victory that won the WAC series at Sam Houston.

Senior designated player Ramsay Lopez led the Lopes' 12-hit attack with two home runs, backing up Golden's six-strikeout day that was nearly her third no-hitter of the season. The Bearkats scored an unearned run after a leadoff error led to a two-out single in the third inning.

Golden, the Peoria Centennial High School graduate, moved to 6-0 and improved her season ERA to 0.76, which ranks 10th nationally. She has 62 strikeouts in 37 innings pitched for the nation's sixth-best rate of strikeouts per seven innings (11.7).

With no GCU runs on the board through the third, Lopez sent a leadoff bomb to left field in the top of the fourth to tie the game and start the Lopes offensive ignition..

An inning later, Lopes senior second baseman Macee Barnes opened with a leadoff walk and senior center fielder Hannah Burnett followed with a single on her 3-for-4 day that improved her team-leading batting average to .420, Burnett stole second, making her 17 for 17 on stolen base attempts this season, to set up junior shorstop Katelyn Dunckel for a RBI single and a 3-1 lead.

Junior first baseman Kaitlyn Brannstrom delvered a two-out RBI single, bringing home Dunckel for a 4-1 advantage.

The Lopes (26-4, 2-1 WAC) wrapped up their scoring with a two-out RBI single from senior right fielder Kristin Fifield in the sixth to score Barnes, who had doubled, and Lopez's second solo homer in the seventh to give her eight on the season. Fifield's two-run single put the El Paso, Texas, native in the national RBIs lead with 46.