Lopez’s homer put Lopes ahead for good, helps even overall series
(Phoenix, AZ) It took 21 years of Grand Canyon softball until Arizona State played a regular-season road game against the Lopes. GCU made it count in quick time.
The Lopes stayed hot with their 12th win in the past 13 games by evening the teams’ overall series with a 5-4 defeat of ASU in front of 843 fans at GCU Softball Stadium.
GCU (37-9) erased an early 1-0 hole with a three-run first inning that was powered by graduate designated player Ramsay Lopez’s team-leading 11th home run, a go-ahead, two-run blast to left field. The Lopes added two more runs that helped senior pitcher Hailey Hudson earn her 11th victory by limiting the Sun Devils to two earned runs in five relief innings.
“We’ve been on a roll,” Lopez said. “The first time we played them (an 8-2 loss on March 19 at ASU), we weren’t at our prime yet. Now, we’ve caught fire. The win really helps secure that and our confidence as a team of how good we are.”
The Lopes have come a long way since losing the teams’ first matchup 21-0 at ASU in 2021 by taking two of three games in the past two seasons. GCU aggressively scheduled midweek matchups to help its RPI ranking, which was at No. 67 entering this week while the Sun Devils were at No. 90.
This time was different, even from Lopes graduate first baseman Ashley Trierweiler’s leadoff lineout that fed confidence to the lineup.
The blazing hot bat of senior left fielder Kayla Rodgers did not cool off on the return from a weekend sweep in Texas. Rodgers started the first-inning rally with a single on her sixth two-hit game in the past seven games. Rodgers, now batting .394, is on an 11-for-16 tear over those six games.
“Kayla is executing, pulling the ball, going opposite,” Hays said of Rodgers, who moved into the No. 2 batting slot last weekend. “It’s nice to be able to have that many good hitters where you can manipulate your lineup a little bit.”
Graduate right fielder Kristin Fifield followed with another single on the next pitch to score Rodgers, who had moved to second base on an error. Tied at 1-1, Lopez then saw a steady dose of outside pitchers until she smashed a 2-2 inside pitch for her 66th career home run, ranking her fifth among active Division I players nationally.
“We knew what to expect and came out aggressive,” said Lopez, who has 47 RBIs this season. “We weren’t going to back down from them.”
Trierweiler made good contact again the second inning, but it went for a two-out, full-count double this time to the right-center field wall. That brought up Rodgers, who rocketed a RBI hit off the left-center field wall for a 4-1 lead before she was thrown out at second base.
Hudson came in in third inning after two innings by graduate Megan Schumacher, a police officer’s daughter who started the game on First Responders Night.
ASU cut the lead to 4-3 in the fourth inning on a walk and two singles, but Fifield helped limit the damage by throwing out a runner at second from right field.
The Lopes tacked on an important insurance run in the fifth inning, when Trierweiler collected her night’s second hit in a .458-hitting season that ranks in the national top 10. Trierweiler moved to second on a fielder’s choice and third on a throwing error before Fifield brought her home with a sacrifice fly and her team-best 49th RBI.
After a leaping, warning-track catch by Rodgers in left field and a ground out, Hall’s second home run tightened the score to 5-4 in the top of the seventh before Hudson drew a game-ending fly out to right field.
“It’s good for us to be good enough where they want to play us midweek,” Hays said of ASU’s first GCU visit. “It helps both of our RPI. It’s fun to play. It’s better than practicing. Hopefully, we can play them enough and have some decent success to where we can call it a rivalry.”
Press Release courtesy of Grand Canyon Athletics – Paul Coro
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