Purple Classic provides tests for undefeated Lopes

Thursday, February 19

Phoenix, Ariz.

4:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

San Diego

Photo by: Jayden Todd

2/19/2026 9:30:00 AM | Softball

Lopes face North Florida, debut Lavender jerseys Friday night

By: Braden Dohrmann

GCU Invite \| February 19-23, 2026 \| GCU Softball Stadium \| Phoenix, Ariz.

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (10-0)	vs.	SAN DIEGO TOREROS (5-4)
			MONTANA GRIZZLIES (4-6)
			NORTH FLORIDA OSPREYS (11-3)
			UC SANTA BARBARA GAUCHOS (2-10)

Grand Canyon hosts the Purple Classic in which it will play host to talented mid-major North Florida and three more opponents in hopes of remaining one of eight undefeated teams in the nation.

HEADLINES

The Lopes went 5-0 in the GCU Invite in Week 2, beating four teams to move to 10-0 on the season.
Grand Canyon has won 19 straight games at GCU Softball Stadium.
The Lopes are one of eight teams in the nation with an undefeated record. Among them, only Florida and Mississippi State have more wins.
Freshman outfielder Addison Shifflett took home Mountain West Freshman of the Week, hitting her first home run and leading the team in hits on the week (seven).
ESPN/USA Softball (No. 27), D1Softball (No. 27) and NFCA (No. 26) have the Lopes receiving votes just outside their top-25 rankings.
Senior pitcher Taryn Batterton has started the year with 20 2/3 shutout innings. She and sophomore Oakley Vickers are each 3-0.
Grand Canyon and Friday night opponent North Florida are ranked in D1Softball's mid-major top 10.
Junior utility player Alina Satcher homered twice in the season-opening win over Southern Utah. She finished the game with seven RBIs, a feat that had not been done by a GCU player since 2019. She hit another grand slam last weekend.
The Lopes enter their first season in the Mountain West. They have gone 24-13 all-time against MW members. Hays is 9-5 vs. MW opponent while leading GCU.
GCU holds the third-best ERA in the nation at 1.06.
The Lopes return 248 innings pitched from the 2025 season. The staff held the third-best ERA in the nation last season.
GCU crossed 700 wins all-time as a program last week in their win over South Dakota.
Hays is seven wins from No. 200 at Grand Canyon in just his fifth season.

SCOUTING SAN DIEGO

San Diego is 5-4 after two weekends of play across California. The Toreros beat MW member Colorado State twice but dropped games last weekend to common opponents of the Lopes in Weber State and Southern Utah.
GCU holds an 8-0 all-time record against San Diego, winning five of the eight on the road.

SCOUTING MONTANA

The Grizzlies enter the weekend with a 4-6 record after going 1-4 last weekend, dropping a game to No. 4 Oklahoma and two games to UTEP.
GCU is 11-4 all-time against Montana, with every game being played in Phoenix.

SCOUTING NORTH FLORIDA

The Ospreys enter with an 11-3 record. North Florida run-ruled Auburn to start the season and most recently lost two games at top-10 Florida.
GCU and North Florida have never played.

SCOUTING UC SANTA BARBARA

The Gauchos enter with a 2-10 record, going 1-4 last weekend in the Bay Area. Their lone win came against MW member San Jose State.
GCU and UCSB split the career series, with two previous contests being played on a neutral field.

LAST TIME OUT

GCU INVITE

The Lopes beat Northern Colorado twice, hitting five home runs in the two games.
Grand Canyon sophomore right hander Natalie Fritz tossed a three-hit complete game in GCU's 1-0 win over South Dakota.
Lopes sophomore utility Jada Cooper raised her average to .435 with at least one hit in every game of the weekend.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Lopes co-host the GCU/ASU Classic next weekend, where Minnesota, CSU Bakersfield, Wisconsin, Eastern Illinois and UC Riverisde will be next up to challenge GCU.