Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader Against Academy of Art

Friday, March 1

Phoenix, AZ

4 p.m.

Grand Canyon

7-4, 2-0

Academy of Art

1-8, 0-2

Academy of Art

Grand Canyon

Coley Bruns

Photo by: Theon Carrier

3/1/2013 8:52:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Close out series tomorrow at noon

The Grand Canyon University baseball team swept their doubleheader against visiting Academy of Art today at Brazell Stadium. With the pair of wins, the Antelopes improved to 8-4 overall and 3-0 in the Pacific West Conference, while the Urban Knights fell to 1-9 overall and 0-3 in conference play.

Both games of today’s doubleheader were 7.0 inning contests and strong pitching from GCU allowed just 1 run to the Urban Knights.

"Anytime you can get two games in one day, that is a good accomplishment," said head coach Andy Stankiewicz. "The second game was tough. We saw their guy last year and he is a grinder. He kept them in the game. I'm very happy we were able to get two wins today."

The ‘Lopes won the first game by a score of 5-1 behind the complete game effort of freshman left-hander Andrew Naderer, who allowed just 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks with 8 strikeouts. For the Urban Knights, Aaron Garabedian was charged with his third loss.

For the second straight game, the ‘Lopes collected double-digit hits, this time collecting 10. Steven Swingle had another great game at the plate, going 2-for-3 with 2 RBI. Derek Mendoza also collected two hits in the first game.

GCU scored first when Seth Fretheim crossed home plate via Swingle’s RBI single to right field in the first inning. The ‘Lopes scored two run in the third inning on RBI singles from Swingle and Mendoza and tacked on another in the fourth inning to claim a 4-0 advantage.

The Urban Knights broke up the shutout in the top of the fifth inning when the second batter reached on a fielder’s choice, moved to second on a walk, third on the second fielder’s choice of the inning and scored via a wild pitch. GCU answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning.

GCU matched their run total in the second game, although it was a tight contest over the first 5.0 innings. The shutout was also the second of the season for the ‘Lopes.

The ‘Lopes had a chance to break open a scoreless tie in the fourth inning of the second game when they had runners on second and third with one out and then the bases loaded with two outs, but were unable to get a runner home.

The game remained scoreless until GCU exploded for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Nick Chapman opened the frame with a walk and was moved to second via a sacrifice bunt from Fretheim. After Michael Pomeroy was intentionally walked, Mendoza connected for a two-run double. Brian Kraft followed with another intentional walk and pinch-hitter Garrett Jeffries plated Mendoza with an RBI single to right field. Kraft crossed home plate on a wild pitch, and as pinch-runner Ryan Moore stole second, he also advanced to third on the wild pitch and eventually came home on an error by the catcher. That would conclude the scoring for the ‘Lopes in the frame, although they did load the bases with two outs.

Brandon Bonilla picked up his first win of the season after relieving starter Coley Bruns, who tossed 5.2 scoreless frames.

"Coley has done a great job," added Stankiewicz. "We were looking at who would be the fourth guy once conference play started and he has earned that right. He has done a great job out of the bullpen the past three weekends. His pitch count had jumped up a bit, so we thought he could give us the most innings. He did exactly that. He kind of grinded it out too, he made some big pitches when he had to. It's a credit to him; he wanted an opportunity to start and he got it and took advantage of it."

The two teams will conclude the series with a single game tomorrow at 12 p.m. at Brazell Stadium. Fans can follow the action via live stats by visiting www.gculopes.com.

GCU 5, AAU 1 (7)
GCU 5, AAU 0 (7)