Coming into the weekend with a conference record of 1-5, the Tritons were desperate for a win to stay in contention for postseason play. As they traveled to Phoenix to play #15 ranked Grand Canyon University with a shorthanded squad of 19 players, their chances were looking slim.

Game 1 looked to be more of the same, The Tritons fell behind early, and by the 3rd inning, they faced a 5-0 deficit. An RBI groundout by Jaydee Denning in the top of the 5th cut the lead to 4 runs, but the Tritons entered the top of the 7th down 6-1. Key singles by Lincoln Wirschem, Kohei Shimada, and Jaydee Denning got the inning started, and suddenly the Tritons were in the game. A few walks and a couple more hits later, and the Tritons had tied the game up with only one out in the inning. JP Herd came up to bat with a runner on 3rd base, and hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring the run that gave the Tritons their first lead of the weekend. Finn Daecher went out to the mound for the 7th inning and shut down the GCU offense, finishing his complete game, and securing his first win of the season, and only the Tritons second win over the Lopes in five seasons.

Taking the momentum into Game 2, the Tritons did something completely out of character for this season: they scored first. Scoring 2 runs in the top of the 3rd inning, the Tritons put their foot on the gas and never took it off. GCU scored one run in each of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings, but the Triton offense always had a response, scoring 2, 2, and 3 runs of their own respectively. Lex Hou and Jaydee Denning had 3 RBIs each on the way to a comfortable 8-3 win, and an impressive first series win clinched by the end of Saturday.

Game 3 was an offensive battle, each team scoring 5 runs in the 4th inning, the Tritons offense bolstered by a 2-run home run from Denning. Heading into the bottom of the 8th, the Tritons were down 10-8, and within striking distance. The Lopes were able to put 2 runs on the board in the bottom of the inning, and the 4-run deficit proved insurmountable as the Tritons couldn’t claw their way back like that had the day prior, dropping Game 3 12-8.

The weekend was successful overall, as the Tritons delivered GCU their first conference series loss since before the pandemic, an encouraging sign for the rest of their season. Hopefully they can take this momentum into the Swing into Spring Tournament in Henderson, Nevada in two weeks and claim a few more victories.