Fritz blanks Boise State over 5 to cap GCU's 4-0 week - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Saturday, April 11

Phoenix, Ariz.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

41-4, 14-2

Boise State

20-25, 6-10

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Boise State	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	4	2
Grand Canyon	2	0	4	0	0	0	X	6	6	1

Photo by: Jayden Todd

4/11/2026 2:53:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

Lopes sophomore limits Broncos to 3 hits; Pond reaches 6 RBIs in 2 wins

Grand Canyon softball could not be 41-4 without being versatile in how it wins games, and that showed this weekend when GCU followed up a power-fueled win with staff pitching Friday night by manufacturing runs and getting a dominant pitching start Saturday from sophomore Natalie Fritz.

No. 25 GCU leads the nation in wins after a 4-0 conference week, which was capped Saturday with a 6-1 victory against Boise State at GCU Softball Stadium.

The Lopes improved to 14-2 in Mountain West play and took a 3 1/2-game lead on second-place Nevada because Fritz lowered her conference-leading ERA to 1.16 with five shutout innings. The right-hander from Chandler Basha High School struck out four batters and walked one to improve to 8-0 this season.

A two-run GCU first inning was enough to win, but the Lopes used 10 free passes (seven walks, three hit by pitches and two errors) and peppered Boise State with six hits (five singles and a double) rather than the four-homer barrage of the previous night.

"Natalie Fritz had a really good outing," Lopes head coach Shanon Hays said. "She got us off to a good start, and then, we jumped out on them. In that first three innings, we should have had more than six runs, and then we just sleepwalked through the rest of it. When you leave that many runners on base, sometimes it comes back to really hurt you, but our pitching was good, and we played really good defense. Anytime you can go 4-0 for a week, you feel good."

GCU scored all it needed in the first inning with a 2-0 lead that was set up by senior center fielder Sydeney McCray's single, freshman second baseman Raegan Holtorf's double and sophomore first baseman Jada Cooper's walk loading the bases with no out. Senior designated player Emily Gonzalez's RBI sacrifice fly and a wild pitch scored the Lopes' first-inning runs.

Fritz did not give Boise State much of a chance to rally, allowing one hit and no walks over the first four innings That allowed the Lopes to grind out the remainder of their runs in a four-run third inning.

Again, GCU loaded the bases early in the inning on graduate left fielder Trinity Martin's walk and Gonzalez and junior catcher Tinley Lucas getting hit by pitches.

Lopes junior shortstop Mackenzie Nolan, drew a full-court walk to push the lead to 3-0 before sophomore third baseman Ellie Pond smacked the first pitch she saw into right field for a two-run, two-out single and a 5-0 lead. Pond, who hit a grand slam Friday night, was then caught stealing second, but that allowed Nolan to score GCU's final run for a 6-0 lead.

"I thought the biggest bat of the game was when Ellie Pond came up and drove in two runs there with two outs," Hays said. "Obviously, you're always happy to win. But we'd like to play a little better offense than we did. Get some more hits at the right time when we have runners in scoring position.

"(Pond) had a big home run to help us win at Fresno in that first game. So when you're getting that kind of production out of your nine hole, you feel really good because she's got such juice in her bat to hit extra-base hits. She drove one in the gap that they made a really good play on her last bat. So, when 7, 8, and 9 are being productive, how we've been the last couple of weeks, that really helps our offense."

Freshman right-hander Lilly Camp, who is from Aberdeen, Washington, finished up GCU circle duties in her ninth relief appearance, allowing one run over two innings on a home run and getting outs on the other six batters she faced on five groundouts.

No. 25 GCU will next face Arizona State in a 7 p.m. Tuesday game at GCU Softball Stadium. The Sun Devils will finish a weekend series with Central Florida on Sunday in Tempe.

"We've got to pitch it well, especially against a really good hitting team," Hays said. "ASU's is one of the best offensive teams in the country, so we're going to have to pitch it very well, and we're going to have to swing the bat as well to beat those good teams (ASU and San Diego State in a weekend road series). We expect a great atmosphere, and these are the kind of games, the meaningful games that our girls look forward to playing."