GCU Wins Series Finale at Irvine

Sunday, March 23

Irvine, CA

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

11-11

UC Irvine

15-8

Grand Canyon

UC Irvine

Josh Ethier had three hits in the win over Irvine

Photo by: Darryl Webb

3/23/2014 3:54:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Bruns gets complete game win, offense explodes for 13 hits

The Grand Canyon University baseball team (11-11, 2-1 WAC) jumped out to quick lead and never looked back as they won, 9-1, over UC Irvine (15-8, 0-0 BWC) in the series finale today at Anteater Stadium in Irvine, Calif. The Antelopes collected 13 hits in the victory, their eighth double-digit effort at the plate this season. GCU also improved to 8-0 in games in which they score six or more runs.

The series marked the end of a seven-game stretch on the road that began last weekend at Bakersfield.

Click here for Michael Potter's postgame interview with assistant coach Gregg Wallis.

Eight different GCU players recorded at least one hit in the win, including a three-hit effort by Josh Ethier. Matt Haggerty, Garrett Jeffries, and Brian Kraft each had two hits in the game. Ben Mauseth and Kraft also added two RBI apiece.

"It was nice to get on the board early," said head coach Andy Stankiewicz. "David (Walker) kind of caught their shortstop off guard to open the game. He can really run. And then we had a walk and a couple of base hits, and before you knew it, we were up two runs. So that was big to get on the board early."

Coley Bruns tossed his second straight complete game, improving to 4-0 on the season after allowing just one run on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts over 9.0 innings of work. It marked the fourth time this season the right-hander has gone 7.0 or more innings and allowed two or fewer runs.

"Coley has come up big for us all year, beginning with his outing in Monroe to get us our first win," added Stankiewicz. "He is gaining confidence, and hopefully people will start looking at our rotation and feel like our top three are interchangeable. Coley continues to step up big for us and it's refreshing because he's really worked hard."

Similar to yesterday's game, David Walker led off the top of the first with a single and moved to second on a walk to Mauseth. Walker scored GCU's first run of the series on a one-out single through the left side off the bat of Haggerty. Pomeroy plated Mauseth with an RBI single into centerfield to hand GCU an early 2-0 lead before the frame was over.

Kraft plated GCU's third run in the top of the second with an RBI double to right-centerfield to score Jeffries, who opened the frame with a single up the middle. Mauseth's bloop single to left field made it a 4-0 game as Kraft came around to score.

Kraft picked up his second RBI of the contest in the fourth inning, plating Ethier with a single up the middle to extend GCU's lead to 5-0. UCI got on the board in the bottom half of the frame following back-to-back one-out hits. The Anteaters looked to add on more than one with runners on first and second, but Bruns struck out Evan Cassolato to end the threat.

The 'Lopes got that run back and more in the fifth, beginning with a fielder's choice RBI by Josh Meyer to bring Haggerty home from third base. Jeffries then promptly hit an RBI triple down the right field line and crossed home plate on Ethier's single up the middle to make it an 8-1 GCU lead heading into the bottom half of the inning.

GCU loaded the bases with one out in the top of the ninth and were able to add one more run on a fielder's choice to plate Jeffries.

"This was tough stretch against good opponents, and to come out 4-3 in this seven-game road stretch is great," Stankiewicz said. "If you can do that over the course of a season, it usually spells out for a pretty good year. Now we will get back home, get the guys back in their regular routine, and hopefully have a good weekend."

GCU will now return home for their Western Athletic Conference home opening series against Chicago State, which will begin on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Brazell Stadium. Fans can follow all of the action live by tuning in to Independent Talk 1100 AM KFNX (online at www.1100kfnx.com or via the TuneIn Radio app on any smartphone).

GCU 9, UCI 1