PHOENIX – Abilene Christian dropped two games at Grand Canyon on Friday and saw its playoff hopes come down to the final day of the regular season on Saturday.
Grand Canyon won 2-1 and 13-8 on Friday, leaving ACU in a tie for the eighth and final postseason berth. The Cats need a win and for Tarleton State not to win two games or for Tarleton State to lose its two remaining games and for California Baptist to defeat Stephen F. Austin.
In the first game,
Lina Russo took the hard-luck loss in a pitchers' duel. She struck out five Lopes in her six innings.
ACU took a quick 1-0 lead when
Olivia Marble homered in the second inning.
That was all for ACU but the Cats got the first two runners aboard in the top of the seventh before GCU wriggled free.
ACU had three hits in the game – two by Marble and one by
Sammie Shelander.
After falling behind 4-0 in the second game, the Wildcats erupted for six runs in the top of the fifth.
Marble broke the goose egg with an RBI single and two runs scored on an error to make it 4-3.
Catrin Hoffman came through with a sacrifice fly to tie the game and
Miranda Lista delivered the big hit – a two-out, two-run single for a 6-4 lead.
Grand Canyon responded with a nine-run bottom of the fifth.
Sydney Kaiser had a pinch-hit, two-run single in the top of the seventh for the final margin.
ACU had 10 hits in the game, led by
Kaydee Bennett with three. Marble,
Avery Miloch,
Bubba Rote, Hoffman, Kaiser, Lista and
Skylar Padgett had one apiece.
