Lopes oust Coyotes in 8, must beat Huskers twice Sunday to advance
(Lincoln, NE) After playing No. 1 Nebraska as closely as any opponent during its 23-game winning streak, Grand Canyon will get another crack at toppling the Huskers on their home field in Sunday’s NCAA Lincoln Regional final.
With Saturday night’s elimination game on the cusp of a lightning delay in extra innings, GCU struck lightning with three bolts of consecutive two-out singles that culminated in sophomore first baseman Jada Cooper’s walk-off RBI hit beating South Dakota 5-4 in eight innings. The Lopes are headed to their second regional final in three seasons with the task of beating No. 1 Nebraska twice Sunday.
“It means a lot,” Lopes head coach Shanon Hays said. “It’s a special group. When you win over 50 games, you know you’ve got a good team. It’s not a fluke. When you got special kids, they’re the ones who make it happen. It’s fun to be a part of. Tomorrow’s going to be a tall order, a tough order. We know that, but we’re glad to have the prvilege to play tomorrow.
“We don’t look at it as a mountain too high to climb. We look at it as an opportunity to go have fun and compete.”
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GCU (54-8) knocked out Summit League champion South Dakota with its fifth walk-off win of the season. The Lopes had taken a 4-2, sixth-inning lead with solo home runs from junior catcher Tinley Lucas and sophomore third baseman Ellie Pond on back-to-back pitches, but South Dakota tied the game in the top of the seventh to set up GCU winning on an eighth-inning walk-off hit just like the previous Saturday’s Mountain West Championship title game.
Part of a 14-hit game, the Lopes’ three consecutive two-out singles in the eighth started with senior center fielder Sydney McCray singling to center before freshman second baseman Raegan Holtorffollowing with her fourth hit, tying McCray’s team season high. Cooper, the Lopes’ RBI leader with 66, lined a 3-1 pitch high in the zone back up the middle to send McCray sliding home for the win.
“I was just looking for strikes,” said Cooper, who had been hitless in the previous four games but still has a.359 batting average and .530 on-base percentage. “I’ve been struggling this weekend, just finding a good swing path. I should just go up there and stop overthinking, but Coach Hays told me the pitch before that the wind was blowing. My foul ball just blew out of the stands. Coach Hays said, ‘You gotta hit it on a line,’ so I was like, ‘Let me just chop at this ball.’ The next pitch, I just lined it.
“Most times, I try not to do too much. You can’t win a game all the time with home runs. Passing the bat is more the team mindset.”
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Even with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, McCray’s single applied pressure that set up Holtorf knocking the next pitch to left field.
“When Syd’s on base, she can make some crazy things happen,” Hays said. “You’ve just got to put it in play, and we had some good at bats behind her. Jada had a really good at bat, a mature at bat. She didn’t try to do too much. It was a smart at bat to drive it up the middle.”
The Lopes’ Sunday task will be to do what all Bowlin Stadium visitors have not done cumulatively all season – win twice. Nebraska (48-6) takes the nation’s longest active winning streak into the first game at noon (Phoenix time) at Bowlin Stadium, where UCLA has been the only visitor to beat the Huskers this season.
“I think we did a good job practicing for that,” said Lucas, referring to last Saturday’s two wins against Nevada to win the Mountain West Championship title. “I think we can do it. I think we have a really good pitching staff and a good team to go battle behind our pitching.”
Cooper echoed, “We’ve done it before. It’s not impossible with this team. We’ve seen her (Nebraska ace Jordy Frahm) once. We just make adjustments. We know they’re going to go at us. We’ve got to get our pitch and attack early.”
Just as it did in February with a 1-0 loss in Phoenix, South Dakota gave GCU a full-game challenge after eliminating No. 24 Louisville with a 4-2 victory earlier Saturday.
The Lopes led 1-0 in the first inning on back-to-back doubles from Holtorf and Cooper, whose blast was hard enough to deflect off Coyotes third baseman Brooke Carey’s glove.
Another double, a two-out rip by sophomore third baseman Ellie Pond, led to the Lopes loading the bases before South Dakota sophomore right-hander Campbell German recorded her first strikeout to leave GCU’s lead at 1-0.
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South Dakota junior Kiya Johnson tied the game at 1-1 with a two-out single in the third inning, when McCray’s off-target throw to third base allowed a second run to score on the play.
GCU bounced back to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third with graduate left fielder Trinity Martin’s opposite-field double setting up the scoring opportunity. After drawing her 110th career walk, senior designated player Emily Gonzalez stunted a steal toward second to draw a throw that went well wide of second base and allowed Martin to score the tying run.
Lopes freshman right-hander Abi Jones, who relieved sophomore starter Natalie Fritz, left a South Dakota runner on third base in the fifth inning by getting center fielder Autumn Iverson’s out for the first time in her two-game day. With two runners on base in the sixth, Jones drew an inning-ending double play with Pond fielding a hot grounder, stepping on third and throwing to first.
That set up GCU’s chance for a breakthrough inning, when its record-breaking power season flexed for a critical pair of round-trippers. The previous single-season program record of 75 was buried by Lucas and Pond, who belted their ninth home runs of the season each to put the team’s season total at 91.
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“I feel like all of today, I was just missing, barely missing,” said Lucas, who had not homered since April 25. “Jayme (assistant coach Jayme Bailey) just kept me very positive in that moment, and I didn’t miss … It was a good momentum shift.”
South Dakota got to Jones in the top of the seventh, when pinch-hitter Katie Hoffman delivered a one-out, two-run single to tie the game at 4-4.
GCU senior Taryn Batterton entered to record the final two outs of the seventh inning and added a shutout eighth inning, ultimately earning her 11th win of the season for a 29-4 record over the past two seasons. That extended GCU’s single-season wins record to 54. In Batterton’s past three postseason outings, the right-hander has posted a 1.31 ERA (two earned runs in 10 1/3 innings).
“Abi came in and she’s coming off a nagging injury and threw pretty well, and Taryn shut it down,” Hays said. “Natalie got us off to a good start. Finally, we just did enough. South Dakota, they’re a scrappy team, and they’ve showed that all tournament.”
Article courtesy of Grand Canyon Athletics – Paul Coro
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