'Lopes Fall to Omaha in Series Opener

Friday, March 7

Brazell Stadium

6:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-8

Omaha

5-4

Omaha

Grand Canyon

Jorge Perez

Photo by: Theon Carrier

3/7/2014 9:39:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Teams will play doubleheader tomorrow beginning at 12:30 p.m.

The Grand Canyon University baseball team (4-8) dropped their series opener against Omaha (5-4) tonight, 6-0, at Brazell Stadium in the first of four games against the Mavericks. This series marks the final non-conference matchup for the Antelopes at home.

GCU was able to muster just two hits in the loss, with Chad De La Guerra and Paul Panaccione both collecting singles. It was the first time this season that the 'Lopes have been shutout.

Starter Jorge Perez was charged with his third loss (1-3) after allowing six runs on 12 hits with three strikeouts over 5.2 innings of work. Joey Wise, Kyle Detwiler, and Robert Beltran combined for 3.1 scoreless innings of relief.

"We are being taken to school a little bit lately," said head coach Andy Stankiewicz. "We are playing against good competition. Their starter, Tyler Fox, is a good pitcher, but the frustrating part is that we weren't committed to staying up the middle as an offense. We had a lot of strikeouts tonight. We try to pride ourselves on being a team that doesn't strike out much, and that puts the ball in play, but we were swinging too big tonight."

Omaha quickly made it a 1-0 game after plating a run on an RBI single up the middle with one out in the top of the first. The Mavericks scored twice more in the top of the second by virtue of three hits to make it 3-0.

GCU stranded two runners in both the second and third innings, but were unable to plate a run. The Mavericks, however, after putting up zeroes in the third and fourth, scored three runs in the top of the fifth after the leadoff batter tripled and was plated on a single. A two-run home run to right field added the other two runs for the Mavericks in the same frame.

After the third, the 'Lopes did not have a runner on base until De La Guerra drew a leadoff walk to open the ninth, but a strikeout followed by a double play put an end to the game.

"We have to go back to work from an offensive standpoint, and come back tomorrow and commit to staying up the middle of the diamond instead of trying to pull the ball," added Stankiewicz. "Otherwise we are going to have a rough time over the weekend."

The two teams will be back in action tomorrow with a doubleheader slated to get underway at 12:30 p.m. Fans can follow the action via live stats by visiting www.gculopes.com.

Omaha 6, GCU 0