No. 13 Arizona ends No. 24 GCU's 47-8 season

Saturday, May 17

Tucson, Ariz.

7:50 p.m.

Grand Canyon

47-8

(1) #13 Arizona

47-12

Arizona

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Sebastian Molinar

5/17/2025 9:08:00 PM | Softball, Paul Coro

Box Score

Lopes' 7th-innng rally falls short to Tucson Regional host

By: Paul Coro

TUCSON, Ariz. – In the NCAA Tournament's regional with the lowest cumulative ERA, runs figured to be at a premium when the stakes were the highest at the Tucson Regional.

After Grand Canyon survived one Tucson Regional elimination game earlier Saturday, two mighty Arizona swings swung a 4-1 Wildcats nightcap win that denied the Lopes a second consecutive championship regional round visit. GCU only had one fewer hit than Arizona and needed that one more hit to make sixth-and seventh-inning threats become rallies.

"What a fun and great year it's been and a privilege for me to coach the club we had," Lopes head coach Shanon Hays said.

No. 13 Arizona made the most of being a regional host and having senior Miranda Stoddard, the Wildcat pitcher who broke a scoreless tie with the first of two Wildcats home runs and pitched 6 1/3 innings

The rebuilt Lopes' marvelous and surprising season ends with a 47-8 record, the best mark in program history that earned GCU's fourth consecutive NCAA regional appearance under head coach Shanon Hays. Only two Lopes lineup starters played their final college game, although WAC Pitcher of the Year Meghan Golden also made her final college outing with an effort that was an out away from being a 1-0 game through five innings.

"It's meant a lot to me," Golden said of her three GCU seasons that capped a 55-win career. "Coach Hays gave me the opportunity. I was always looked at like I wasn't good enough. He looked at me and saw something. It meant a lot. Being a part of this team for three years, we put this team on the map. It's been the funnest years of my life."

Golden shut out Arizona for the first three innings on nine outs in the air and was a strike away from four shutout innings when Stoddard smashed a full-court pitch for her 15th home run of the season and a 1-0 lead.

Stoddard had faced the minimum through three innings, but GCU mounted a threat to answer in the bottom of the fourth as the designated home team in Arizona's stadium.

GCU sophomore second baseman Savannah Kirk singled down the left-field line, and graduate left fielder Mia Weckel followed with an infield single on the next pitch. Graduate right fielder Makaiya Gomez advanced them with a sacrifice bunt to set up the Lopes' hottest hitter, junior designated player Emily Gonzalez.

On an 0-1 pitch, Gonzalez whacked a hard line drive back at Stoddard, who snagged it to avoid a two-run, go-ahead hit.

"Some of that is reaction, luck, safety," said Stoddard, who plays first base when she is not pitching. "It definitely helps to be at a corner, getting some of those hots. It's great when you can make a big play like. Another momentum shifter."

The deficit grew in the fifth inning with freshman left-hander Oakley Vickers stepping in for Golden to retire a pair of left-handed Arizona hitters. But when Golden returned, Big 12 Player of the Year Devyn Netz welcomed her with a two-run home run on her first pitch to push the Wildcats lead to 3-0. Golden's first loss of the season put her record at 14-1 with a 1.06 ERA.

The Wildcats (47-12) stretched the lead to 4-0 in the sixth inning, but the Lopes nearly added to their nation-leading 22 comeback wins.

"That was a phenomenal year they had, and that was a lot of fight showed in the game," Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe said.

Makaiya Gomez

GCU scratched out its lone run in the sixth inning, when Kirk drew a leadoff walk and Gomez drove her home with a single to right field for her 50th RBI of the season. With Gomez on second base and two outs, freshman first baseman Jada Cooper drove a ball to the right-field wall, where Wildcats right fielder Kaiah Altmery pivoted her body on the track to make the catch.

After junior Maggie Place and senior Emily Darwin put Arizona down in order in the top of the seventh, the Lopes mustered one last charge that prompted Arizona to pull Stoddard after freshman third baseman Willa Ford and junior center fielder Sydney McCray opened the seventh with singles.

Now with the tying run at the plate and no outs, Netz relieved Stoddard after giving up a seventh-inning, game-tying home run to Gomez in the teams' first meeting this season. Saying that home run lived in the back of her mind since that March 19 game, Netz struck out GCU pinch-hitters Alina Satcher and Lovey Kepa'a on seven pitches combined for the first two outs. That brought up Kirk, but the WAC Player of the Year also struck out to send Arizona to Sunday's regional championship round against Ole Miss.

Shanon Hays

"They did a good job of making their pitching change at the right moment," Hays said. "We just never could get that one big hit at the right time to get us into the game. We hit some hard balls right at them. Good defense, a little bit of bad luck."

Kirk was wrongly the game's final out because it happened more rarely than hits this season. After going 3 for 6 in Saturday's two regional games, Kirk finished the season with a .505 batting average that ranked second in the nation and broke Ashley Trierweiler's 1-year-old GCU all-time records for average and total hits (97). Kirk stole three bases in Saturday's regional win against Santa Clara to reach 50 steals without being caught this season but did not get a chance for another against Arizona to end the season one steal shy of former Lopes player Gianna Nicoletti's GCU and WAC record.

"That's absolutely mind-blowing and hitting over .500," Hays said. ":She's not picky on who she gets hits against. She just gets hits."

McCray's singles in her final two at bats of the season made her GCU's only two-hit player against Arizona, lifting her season average to .326. McCray was one of seven Lopes who hit better than .300 this season.

Gonazlez homered in 10 of her last 22 games, including three consecutive postseason games, and batted .429 for the final 18 games of the season. She went 1 for 3 against Arizona, which retired her on two line-drive outs.

Willa Ford

Ford also hit in the finale, making her one of GCU's strongest finishers to the season with a ,442 batting average in the final 15 games after becoming the everyday starting third baseman midway through the season.

The Lopes did not make an error for the final nine games of the season and enjoyed web gems like sophomore catcher Tinley Lucas' diving catch on a popped-up bunt Saturday night.

The pitching staff was a unit that led the nation in ERA, finishing at 1.94 to break a 21-year-old GCU record for single-season ERA.

"We pick each other up every time someone comes in," Golden said. "We just worked like we were our own little team. That's why we won so much this year. It was just fun to be a part of."

The remarkable program turnaround in Hays' four years at the GCU helm has resulted in a 183-50 record, the first four NCAA Division I regional appearances and this year's breakthrough as a top-25 team. Each GCU regional experience concludes with its usual postgame prayer circle, but with more consoling for the last game as a team.

Infield huddle

Kirk, the WAC Player of the Year, craves more for the Lopes' large returning group next season.

"I want them to remember us as a team that competes and isn't scared to play anyone," Kirk said. "We're not just some small, little mid-major. We can compete against these bigger teams.

"It's going to be hard to replace them (the departing seniors), but I think for us to make it farther, we need to understand that we can beat these teams. I think some of us came in thinking we're here just to show up for a regional. There's more to it than showing up for the regional. You have to actually be in the right mindset because we can play physically with these girls. We can compete with them. We just have to be mentally in the right mindset to keep competing with them."