San Diego State softball began their three game series against No. 24 Grand Canyon on Friday, falling 12–3.
The Aztecs have struggled to gain momentum this season, going 5-10 in Mountain West conference play in pursuit of a fourth straight conference championship. Losing the last six of eight games at home, the nationally ranked and No. 1 seed in the Mountain West Grand Canyon Antelopes (41-5, 14-2 MW) presented a significant challenge for the Scarlet and Black.
Freshman starting pitcher Matti Kwarta surrendered six runs in the first inning, largely off the back of a grand slam from the graduate student left fielder Trinity Martin. The Lopes then picked up two more runs off of a single from senior outfielder Sydney McCray.
“What it comes down to is the free passes,” head coach Stacey Nuveman-Deniz said. “For us, it’s a solo home run, for them it’s a three or four run home run, because they’ve got two walks.”
SDSU pitchers surrendered eight walks in the game, including four costly ones in the second inning that walked in two runs for the Lopes. GCU tacked on three more runs that same inning, worsening the deficit to 11-0.
Senior pitcher Key-annah Pu’a took over the circle at the end of the second inning, surrendering just one run over the final 3.1 innings of relief work. Pu’a gave up only two hits while punching out two Lopes hitters.
“I was really pleased with [Pu’a’s] performance coming in, slamming the door and stopping the bleeding,” Nuveman-Deniz said.
The first run of the game for the Aztecs came off of a solo shot from sophomore outfielder Jazmin Williams, who blasted the first pitch she saw past the left field bleachers.
“I thought as the game wore on, our bats were getting better, [but] we were having some tough outs, some hard outs that went right to people,” Nuveman-Deniz said.
Junior first baseman Olivia Gigante carried her success over from last weekend’s series against San Jose State. Against the Spartans, Gigante smashed two home runs in one game, the second being a go-ahead homer in the seventh to give the Aztecs a 2-1 lead. She became the third Aztec this season with a multi-homer game, joining Williams and sophomore shortstop Quinn Waiki.
Gigante brought that success into Friday’s game, clobbering a two-run homer to center field in the fourth inning to bring the deficit to 12-3. That home run was Gigante’s 11th of the season to lead the team in that category, as she continues to see the ball well.
“[I’m] just keeping it simple; seeing the bat, hitting the ball and putting a good swing off a good pitch,” Gigante said.
The game was scoreless past the fourth, and the Aztecs were mercied after five innings. The Aztecs went on to drop the second game of the series 11-2.
The Scarlet and Black came into Sunday’s early contest looking to salvage the series and avoid a sweep after having lost the first two games via mercy rule. Junior starting pitcher Faith Jordan (8-5 3.53 ERA) got the nod against GCU sophomore starter Oakley Vickers (11-3 2.04 ERA).
The game opened up with a tightly contested first inning as GCU loaded the bases in the top half of the first after a lead off single from McCray.
However, Jordan bared down and forced freshman right fielder Addison Shifflett to ground out, ending the Lopes’ early threat.
The Aztecs struck in a big way in the bottom of the first when senior catcher Jade Ignacio crushed the first pitch she saw from Vickers over the left field wall to give the Scarlet and Black a 1-0 lead after just one batter.
“Jade coming out and homering on the first batter of the inning really helped us settle in and set the tone offensively throughout the game,” Nuveman-Deniz said of Ignacio’s solo home run in the bottom of the first.
The lead was short lived as the Lopes tied the game in the top of the second thanks to a two-out RBI single to left center from McCray. The Scarlet and Black then counterpunched back with a massive six-run bottom of the second inning.
The scoring started when senior center fielder Ally Dueker worked a walk with the bases loaded, forcing in the first run of the inning. Ignacio then tacked on the second run of the inning on a sacrifice fly pushing the lead to 3-1 and tallying her second RBI of the ball game.
Junior right fielder Kaila Pollard added onto the tally with a two-run single of her own, pushing the lead to 5-1. Waiki pushed across the final two runs of the inning on a two-run double down the left field line, growing the already mounting lead to 7-1.
“We kept betting on ourselves and knowing that we can trust ourselves to hit anything we faced really helped us settle into the game,” Ignacio said about the team’s offensive performance throughout the game.
The rest of the game was smooth sailing for the Aztecs as they shut down the Lopes offense the rest of the way. The red-hot offense tacked on the final two runs of the game on a two-run home run from senior third baseman Angie Yellen in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The Scarlet and Black then closed out the game after setting down the Grand Canyon lineup in order to secure a mercy-rule victory.
“We came into today like it was a new day and a fresh start with a renewed sense of belief that we could get it done today ” Nuveman-Deniz said of the team’s attitude heading to the game.
SDSU is now focused on its Boise State matchup starting this Friday for their weekend series at the SDSU Softball Stadium.
