TUCSON, Ariz. – The Santa Clara softball team's historic season came to an end at the hands of Grand Canyon 9-4 in the first elimination game of the Tucson Regional on Saturday at Hillenbrand Stadium. Santa Clara took an early 2-0 lead but Grand Canyon rallied with three solo home runs in the fourth to take the lead and added five more in the fifth to break the game open and end the Broncos dream season.
Grand Canyon staved off elimination and plays Arizona in the second elimination game on Saturday evening. The winner of the game will take on Ole Miss on Sunday with an opportunity to claim the Tucson Regional title.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Grand Canyon (47-7) bats were kept quiet through the first three innings as Santa Clara took a 2-0 lead but in the fourth, they woke up with Makaiya Gomez, Emily Gonzalez and Willa Ford each hitting solo home runs to take a 3-2 lead. After the Broncos tied things up 3-all in the top of the fifth, the Antelopes answered right back and broke it open with five runs in the home half of the inning to have an opportunity to play another game in the regional.
- Hannah Edwards started the game strong in the circle retiring nine of 10 batters after giving up a lead off single to Savannah Kirk to start off the game. But she ran into trouble going through the Grand Canyon lineup the second time around getting touched up for the three solo home runs.
- For the second straight game in the regional, Santa Clara struck first. In the top of the second, Taryn Clements hit a fly ball to left field where Mia Weckel lost it in the sun resulting in a double. A ground out by Hazyl Gray moved her over to third and she came home on Robynn Balmediano's RBI grounder for the first run of the game.
- Santa Clara (32-22) doubled its lead to 2-0 in the third on Lauren Bryson's solo home run, her second of the season, over the left field wall.
- Gomez's home run to lead off the fourth kick started the Lopes offense as three of the first four batters to start the inning went yard. Grand Canyon finished with 11 hits with much of the production from the top of the lineup. The one through four hitters accounted for seven hits and six RBIs. Gomez and Gonzalez each went 2-for-4 with Gomez driving in three runs and two for Gonzalez.
- The Broncos knotted the game at 3-all in the top half of the fifth when Hope Alley hit a sacrifice fly to score Abigail Charpentier, however, in the bottom of the inning, the offense exploded for five runs on seven hits. Six of the hits were singles with five of them driving in a run.
- Santa Clara finished the season with a program record 32 victories and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in their 46 year history by winning the West Coast Conference Championship. They won each of the five WCC series to capture 11 league wins, which also set a program high.
- The Broncos set another program record with eight All-WCC recipients and swept the major conference awards led by Coach of the Year, Gina Carbonatto, who became the all-time winningest coach in school history during the season. Cairah Curran took home the conference Player of the Year honors and Taryn Clements claimed the Defensive Player of the Year award. Cari Ferguson won both the Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year recognitions.
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