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Softball
6-2-08
Grand Canyon University softball players Yasmeen Watkins and Randi Johns ranked among the NCAA Division II  leaders in different statistical categories.
Watkins, a junior second baseman, led the nation in sacrifice flies with eight. She ranked eighth in RBIs per game (1.24) after driving in 62 this season. Watkins (pictured) ranked tied for 21st in home runs (13), tied for 40th in slugging percentage (.732) and was 85th in batting average (.405).
Johns, a junior first baseman, ranked 13th in hit-by-pitches per game (0.26) after being hit 13 times. She tied for 25th in home runs (12), was 42nd in toughest to strike out, 52nd in sac flies (3), 61st in slugging percentage (.687), 78th in RBIs per game (0.84) after driving in 42, and was 78th in on-base percentage (.478).
Softball 5-22-08 Grand Canyon junior second baseman Yasmeen Watkins (Phoenix/Sunnyslope HS) was named to the First Team All-PacWest squad.  Watkins (pictured) was also chosen the league's Newcomer of the Year. GCU junior first baseman Randi Johns (Waddell, Ariz./Millennium HS), junior outfielder Tana Holtorf (Peoria, Ariz./Sunrise Mountain HS) and senior utility player Michelle Farrell (Tempe, Ariz./Corona del Sol HS) were second team selections.
"I'm obviously pleased about Yas, with her first team and Newcomer of the Year honors," GCU coach Ann Pierson said. "I'm pleased we had three other kids who had representation on the all-conference team. It's nice to see that we have four kids on the team, and we have work to do for next year. We have kids that certainly were deserving of being selected, and that will give them some motivation for next year." A transfer from Central Arizona College, Watkins led the Antelopes in hitting with a .405 average and 62 RBI, and set a school season record for home runs with 13. She hit 11 doubles, a .732 slugging percentage, a .447 on-base percentage and was successful in eight of 10 stolen base attempts.
Softball
4-26-08
They deserved a better fate, these Antelope diamond girls. But after scratching their way back from deficits in the late innings of both games, Grand Canyon fell to Dixie State 10-8 in eight innings and 12-8 Satur day to close the season.
Grand Canyon finished third in the Pacific West Conference with a 24-25-1 overall record and 14-10 league mark. Dixie State (27-23, 16-8) finished second.
GCU led by a run entering the seventh inning, but DSC scored twice to take a 7-6 lead in the top of the seventh. Grand Canyon tied it in the bottom half of the inning when Randi Johns hit her 11th home run of the year to send it into extra innings.
Dixie State scored three runs in the eighth, and Grand Canyon cut it to 10-8 on an infield single by Tana Holtorf. But the Antelopes couldn't push another run across with the bases loaded.
GCU starter Megan Niver, pitching her final collegiate game, suffered the loss. Niver (pictured) went the distance, and finished the season with 12-13 record.
Softball
4-21-08
PacWest Report
Junior second baseman Yasmeen Watkins (Phoenix/Sunnyslope) was named the PacWest Player of the Week for the second time this year.
Watkins had one of the best weeks of the season in the league, batting .667 with four home runs and drove in 14 runs. She had a 1.389 slugging percentage, .682 on-base percentage, scored eight runs and doubled once.
She became the school's single-season home run recordholder with 11 entering this weekend's four-game series with Dixie State, which begins Friday at noon.
Senior pitcher/right fielder Michelle Farrell was named to the PacWest Top 10 weekly honor roll.
Softball
4-20-08
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yasmeen Watkins and Randi Johns are hitting some moonshoots these days. Of orbital proportions? No. But long enough and frequently to make a college teens-20s student start to think a little more giddy about themselves these days.
Watkins (pictured) hit her 11th home run of the season, establishing a new school record two days after Johns hit her 10th to break her own previous mark. Without getting lost in the longball craze, Grand Canyon's focus now is on securing second place in the Pacific West Conference.
Following three wins at Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont, Calif., Friday and Saturday, the Antelopes (23-22-1, 13-7 PacWest) headed south and dropped a doubleheader at Cal State Monterey Bay, 9-6 and 5-3 Sunday in Monterey. Still, with this weekend's regular-season ending series with Dixie State (24-22, 13-7) looming Friday and Saturday at noon at GCU's Stapleton-Pierson Stadium, these Antelopes are riding some momentum that had coach Ann Pierson texting in the early daylight hours Sunday morning.
Indeed it feels good to be playing softball and wearing purple and black these days.
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