The Grand Canyon University baseball team dropped a 1-0 contest with Loyola Marymount Tuesday at Brazell Stadium in Phoenix, Ariz. The Antelopes drop to 15-14, while the visiting Lions, who were tabbed as the West Coast Conference (WCC) preseason favorite, improve to 17-12.
Starter
Cameron Brendel was sensational, tossing four innings of no-hit ball to keep LMU off the board through the first four.
Jake Repavich (4-2) suffered the loss, fanning two, while surrendering just one run in three innings of relief work.
Travis Garcia-Perreira and
Mick Vorhof both threw a scoreless inning out of the pen.
"They (the pitching staff) did a great job," said head coach Andy Stankiewicz. "Cameron (Brendel) did a nice job, good pitching performance from him through four innings. Jake did a nice job, walked a couple of guys, which is uncharacteristic of him."
LMU scored the lone run of the game in the top of the fifth when Jimmy Jack scored on a Billy Wilson sacrifice fly.
Offensively,
Chad De La Guerra,
Brandon Smith,
Thomas Lerouge and
Ben Mauseth all tallied a hit for the Lopes.
"We gave a good team free bases and we weren't swinging the bats real well," said Stankiewicz. "We are learning a tough lesson, as far as understanding the little things against good teams can come back to bite you. Part of our growth as a team, as a program, is that we have to understand this."
"That was a good arm we saw tonight (Brenton Arriaga), he was a crafty lefty, good changeup and breaking ball that he mixed in," added Stankiewicz. "Too many lazy fly ball outs and we have to get back to hitting the ball hard on the ground."
The Lopes will continue their homestand when they welcome UTPA to Brazell Stadium for a three-game WAC set. The two teams will open the series with a 6:30 p.m. contest on Thursday. Live audio and live stat links for Thursday's game will be available at
www.gculopes.com.
LMU 1, GCU 0