GCU eliminates San Diego State 9-7 with Trierweiler’s 3-hit, 3- RBI game
(Los Angeles, CA) The Grand Canyon softball team’s potent offense returned Saturday and so will the Lopes.
GCU bounced back from taking its second shutout loss of the season by pounding out 14 hits for a 9-7 win that eliminated San Diego State at the Los Angeles Regional. The Lopes (49-12) won the three-hour marathon and will return to Easton Stadium at 9:05 p.m. Saturday for another elimination game against No. 17 Virginia Tech (40-13-1), the regional’s No. 2 seed that lost 7-6 to host UCLA earlier Saturday.
The late game’s winner will advance to Sunday’s regional final, where it would have to beat the Bruins twice to advance to an NCAA Super Regional. GCU defeated Virignia Tech 11-2 on Feb. 17 in Phoenix.
After being held to a season-low two hits in a five-inning loss to UCLA, GCU outhit that in the first inning against Mountain West champion San Diego State (31-20). With graduate first basemen Ashley Trierweiler and junior center fielder Makiaya Gomez racing to infield singles, graduate designated player Ramsay Lopez delivered a one-out RBI single up the middle before senior left fielder Kayla Rodgers’ RBI grounder put the Lopes ahead 2-0.
“Go have fun and play how we always play,” GCU head coach Shanon Hayssaid of his message after Friday night’s 9-0 loss to UCLA. “Forget that. You have a short memory. Go play for the love of the game.”
GCU junior starting pitcher Meghan Goldenopened the game with two perfect innings, allowing graduate right fielder Kristin Fifield to pad the lead in the top of the third inning. Fifield crushed her 14th home run of the season and 58th of her career, taking the first pitch she saw over the right-center field wall for a 3-0 Lopes advantage.
The Aztecs pieced together their first three hits for a two-run third inning that tightened the GCU lead, but Golden stranded a runner in scoring position by ending her second consecutive inning with a change-up strikeout.
But San Diego State opened the fourth inning with back-to-back home runs off Golden and senior reliever Hailey Hudson to take a 4-3 lead before Hudson ended the damage there.
The Lopes left the bases loaded in the fifth inning and were 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position before correcting that in a clutch way in the sixth and seventh innings.
With graduate pitcher Megan Schumacher (now 5-0) shutting out San Diego State for the fifth and sixth innings, GCU rattled off six unanswered runs.
Lopes freshman second baseman Savannah Kirk set the table in the sixth with a leadoff bunt single and moved to third on freshman catcher Tinley Lucas’sacrifice bunt and San Diego State’s third error. That allowed Trierweiler to tie the game on a RBI grounder before a go-ahead RBI single to right field by Gomez, who is 3 for 6 at the regional.
Schumacher kept the 5-4 lead in place into the seventh inning, where GCU continued to put the pressure on by having its leadoff batter reach bases for the sixth time in seven innings. This time, it was senior left fielder Kayla Rodgers singling to right field on the first pitch, maintaining the Lopes’ early-count aggression.
GCU loaded the bases with Kirk’s third single and a Lucas walk, setting up sophomore Brynn-Jordan Smythe’s RBI single over shortstop Lala Macairo’s reach for the first insurance run.
On the next pitch, Trierweiler ripped a two-run double to the right-center field wall for an 8-4 Lopes lead. Trierweiler, who went 3 for 5 with three RBIs, stretched the lead to 9-4 when she avoided a tag at home on a double steal.
San Diego State rallied in the seventh inning with three runs on five hits, a walk and an error before Lopes junior pitcher Emily Darwin recorded the final two outs for her first save of the season.
Darwin induced two grounders to Kirk, the second baseman who handled the last one on a wicked hop to send the Lopes to a 9:05 p.m. elimination game against Virginia Tech.
Press Release courtesy of GCU Athletics – Paul Coro
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