To kick off the second day of the Mountain West Tournament, the underdog New Mexico Lobos, fresh off of their first conference tournament victory in 21 years, were forced to go toe-to-toe with the juggernaut top-seeded Grand Canyon Lopes in the opening game of the double-elimination stage of the tournament. Trailing 6-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, GCU scored five runs, three of them with two outs, to outlast the upset-minded Lobos in a 7-6 classic.
Oakley Vickers got the start for the Lopes,
while Caitlin Benningfield got the nod for New Mexico. The two pitchers started off the game by sitting down each of the opposing team’s top three hitters. Rather surpisingly, it was Vickers that allowed the game’s first baserunner with a walk in the second, but three consecutive strikeouts provided more than enough evidence that her composure was intact. The Lopes scored first with a Trinity Martin solo shot to dead center in the bottom of the second. Outside of that, the defensive excellence continued on both sides, with Benningfield trying her best to keep up with Vickers in the strikeout department. DeNae Vasquez-Dickson recorded the first hit of the game for the Lobos with her bunt single in the top of the third, but neither team could get the slightest bit of traction offensively outside of that.
The top of the sixth was where things really got going. Vasquez-Dickson led off the frame with her second single of the game, which compelled MW Coach of the Year Shanon Hays to pull Vickers out of the game in favor of Taryn Batterton. Batterton immediately proved that to be a highly questionable decision, immediately giving up an ultra-long double to Gabrielle Briones which drove Vasquez-Dickson home for the game-tying run.
After a groundout that moved Briones to third, Hays made the even more questionable decision to pull Batterton in favor of Abi Jones. Jones’ first pitch hit Jessica Deleon in the head, then she proceeded to throw four straight balls to Miracle McKenzie, loading the bases. Completing the cycle of horrendous decision-making, Hays then pulled Jones for Vickers, leaving every person watching with the obvious question of why the Lopes pulled her in the first place.
Vickers gave up an RBI sac fly to Melanie Macias, giving New Mexico their second run of the inning. The Lope starter then proceeded to record the final out of the inning, but not before completing the collapse that gave the underdog Lobos a stunning lead entering the bottom of the sixth. Now facing far more pressure than she had been previously, Benningfield gave up two walks and a single to Jada Cooper to lead off the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases before giving up a game-tying sac fly to Emily Gonzalez. Benningfield stranded the rest of the batters after that, entering the top of the seventh knotted up at two.
Vickers got the nod for the top of the seventh, immediately recording back-to-back strikeouts. Vasquez-Dickson extended the inning by getting on with a Jada Cooper error, then Briones did the same with Vickers’ second walk of the game. That brought out Hays again, who pulled Vickers for the second time, inserting former Lobo Natalie Fritz in an attempt to record the final out of the frame. Fritz’ first pitch hit Allie Williams, loading the bases for Jessica Deleon. Deleon crushed the 2-2 pitch to left field for a grand slam, giving the Lobos a 6-2 lead entering the final frame.
The Lopes loaded the bases, bringing two runs across on a redemptive single by Cooper, but an incredible decision by Hayden Luderer to throw to the trail runner at third gave the Lobos a crucial second out. The Lopes got the tying run into scoring position on a Trinity Martin double, then miraculously tied the game on an Emily Gonzalez double that was a little over two inches away from being a foul ball. Addison Shifflett then came up to bat, walking off the Lobos with an RBI double that secured a miraculous, come-from-behind win for the top-seeded Lopes.
Martin and Cooper each recorded two hits, with Gonzalez holding the scoring lead with three RBIs. Vickers pitched 6.1 innings, allowing three hits with a combined 10 strikeouts. The Lopes did not have much production at the plate outside of the seventh inning, but for a dominant squad like this, that’s all that was really needed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
GCU will advance to face the winner of the Nevada/UNLV game tomorrow, May 8, at 12:00 p.m. PST. The winner of that matchup will advance to the tournament championship on Saturday, where they will only need to win one of two games to take home the MW tournament title.
