GCU's Rally Falls Short at Dixie

Thursday, April 26

St. George, UT

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

24-21, 21-16

Dixie State

28-15, 24-13

Grand Canyon

Dixie State

P.J. Garcia

4/26/2012 9:55:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

The Grand Canyon University baseball team fell in the first game of their four-game series with Dixie State tonight, 8-7, at Bruce Hurst Field in St. George, Utah.

The loss drops the Antelopes to 24-21 overall, 21-16 in the Pacific West Conference. The loss also drops the ‘Lopes to three games behind the Red Storm (28-16, 24-13) in the battle for second place, with three-games remaining in the conference season.

Grand Canyon mounted a rally after trailing 7-5 heading into the ninth inning. Michael Pomeroy started the inning with a double and moved to third on a single by the PacWest’s leading hitter, Derek Mendoza. P.J. Garcia, last week’s PacWest Player of the Week, followed with a single that scored Pomeroy to cut the lead to one. After a wild pitch moved runners to second and third, pinch hitter Tagg Duce tied the game at 7-7 with a sacrifice fly to right field.

Dixie State, who earlier rallied from a 5-2 deficit, scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to pull out the win. Yuko Kato’s second hit of the game with one out in the frame scored Quinn Boyer and moved Dixie State within one win of clinching second place in the conference.

GCU took a 1-0 lead in the second when Jackie Samora hit a 3-1 fastball over the left field fence for his first career home run.

After falling behind 2-1, the Antelopes scored three runs in the third to go up 4-2. Mendoza ripped a two-run double and was followed by a RBI-single from Garcia in the inning. Dixie escaped further damage in the inning as the ‘Lopes left the bases loaded.

Joey Bristyan reached on an error to leadoff the fourth and later scored from third on a double steal with teammate Pomeroy, putting Canyon up 5-2.

Brady Wager started for GCU and allowed six runs (four earned) over 5.1 innings. He walked five, while fanning only one. The no-decision snapped Wager’s five-game winning streak and represented his shortest start since Feb. 24, a span of eight starts.

Coltin White (5-2) was charged with the loss after allowing a pair of runs on three hits in 1.2 innings.

Garcia and Mendoza each finished with three hits to pace the Antelopes’ nine-hit game. Pomeroy added two hits.

Both sides had numerous chances in the game as GCU left 10 runners on base, compared to 12 for DSC.

The two will meet again with a doubleheader tomorrow beginning at 3 p.m. (Arizona time). They will wrap-up the series with a single game at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

DSC 8 GCU 7