Martin homers twice catapulting Lopes to win over San José State

Friday, March 20

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

31-1, 4-0

San José State

10-17, 2-2

San Jose State

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Kaily Green

Martin homers twice catapulting Lopes to win over San José State

3/20/2026 11:05:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

GCU wins first conference home game in the Mountain West

By: Braden Dohrmann

Grand Canyon began a new win streak Friday night with a win in the first Mountain West conference home game in program history, beating San José State 5-1 at GCU Softball Stadium.

The Lopes scored five runs on 12 hits, highlighted by graduate outfielder Trinity Martin's second multi-home run game of the season.

Martin got the scoring going in the second inning, launching the first pitch of the bottom-half of the inning way out of the park.

"I stand by the rule that I sit on the first 'meatball' pitch," said Martin. "If it is not there, I leave it, but tonight she just happened to give it to me."

Martin started the inning with a bang, but more was to come. Catcher Tinley Lucas singled two pitches later to left field, followed by a bunt single from junior third baseman Mackenzie Nolan. Two outs later, freshman second baseman Raegan Holtorf came up to the plate with runner on second and third.

Holtorf ripped a grounder up the middle, with SJSU's second baseman able to glove the ball falling away from first base. The ball was fired to first, but not in time. Sophomore Briah Williams scored easily from third, pinch running for Lucas and Nolan slid into home from second as she never broke stride around third base as the ball was being thrown to first base.

Holtorf had a hit in each of the first two innings and earned a third hit in the sixth inning. Her and Martin each had three hits on the day. Holtorf leads the team with 35 hits, 29 of which are singles. She is riding a six-game hit streak.

Martin drove in her second run of the game thanks to a bloop single to shallow left-center field with the bases loaded in the third. After Jada Cooper and Addison Shifflett singled, Emily Gonzalez walked the bases loaded. Martin's single advanced every runner one base.

The Lopes managed to strand all three runners afterwards keeping the score at 4-0 through three frames. The freshman Shifflett had two hits herself and is on a five-game hitting streak.

The final GCU run came in the fifth inning, when once again Trinity Martin stepped to the plate and hammered a ball to the opposite field. She hit her third career multi-home run game and second of the season, when she homered twice vs Northern Colorado (2/14) in the second weekend of the season.

Martin has six long balls on the year, only trailing the sophomore first baseman Cooper with seven, on the team.

In the circle, senior Taryn Batterton moved to 8-0 behind four innings of solid work. Batterton just allowed four hits, while striking out another four. Oakley Vickers finished the game with three innings of one-run ball, just allowing a solo shot in the sixth inning. Vickers struck out five and earned her team-best third save of the season. She leads the team in wins and saves at 9-0.

The Lopes followed up Tuesday's Oklahoma State loss with a win, as Grand Canyon has not dropped consecutive games in a full year exactly. Losing back-to-back last season on March 21 vs Tarleton State after an extra-innings loss to ranked Arizona.

"Any loss is tough, we never want to lose," said Martin. "We do not let losses define us and if anything, it re-lit a fire underneath us moving forward."

GCU and San José State will play game two of the three-game set Saturday night at 7 p.m. The game was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., but due to the 100+ degree temperatures, the decision was made to move the game back. Grand Canyon (4-0) holds a one-game lead on Nevada (3-1) in conference play, as the Wolfpack won game one of their series at Utah State Friday.