Grand Canyon welcomes three teams for GCU Classic

Thursday, Feb. 25 - 1 p.m.
	Ethan Evanko 0-1, 81.00 ERA	Grant Wolfram 0-0, 0.00 ERA
KXXT 1010 AM (www.familyvaluesradio1010.com) / www.gcustats.com
Friday, Feb. 26 - 7 p.m.
	Jorge Perez 0-0, 0.00 ERA	Andy Cox 1-0, 2.25 ERA
Cox7 Arizona (www.cox7.com/live) / www.gcustats.com
Saturday, Feb. 27 - 6 p.m.
	Jake Repavich 1-0, 0.00 ERA	Nick Deeg 0-1, 5.40 ERA
www.gcustats.com
Sunday, Feb. 28 - 3 p.m.
	Tyler Wyatt 0-1, 14.73 ERA	Cameron Neff 0-0, 3.60 ERA
www.gcustats.com

PHOENIX -- After splitting last weekend's season-opening series vs. Gonzaga, the Grand Canyon baseball team will host Central Michigan, Tennessee and Saint Mary's for the GCU Classic. The tournament spans from Thursday through Sunday at Brazell Stadium and, in all, will feature seven games. The Lopes will play in four of the seven games, playing once per day.

It was a tale of four vastly different ballgames in the season-opening series for GCU. In Games 1 and 3, the Lopes' pitching staff limited Gonzaga to one combined run, winning both affairs. Jorge Perez pitched 5.2 scoreless innings in the season opener, allowing seven hits while striking out four. Jake Repavich delivered the best performance of his career in Game 3, tossing 7.0 scoreless while limiting Gonzaga to just three hits. In Games 2 and 4, however, the Bulldogs' offense was firing on all cylinders, posting 21 and 11 runs, respectively.

"Jake Repavich did a great job," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said following Saturday's doubleheader. "We needed that. We needed our starting pitchers to step up and establish the strike zone and stand up there with a little confidence to go after hitters. He did just what we needed in a big way."

From the batter's box, senior Brandon Smith and sophomore Garrison Schwartz highlighted the Lopes' opening weekend. Smith welcomed in the year with a 3-for-5 performance on Friday and homered later in the weekend. The outfielder collected a WAC-leading eight hits through the course of the series, including his fourth career homer on Saturday. Schwartz finished the weekend 6-of-14 with six runs scored. Four of his six hits were of the extra-base variety, including his first career homer.

The GCU Classic is in its second season after an inaugural tournament that featured North Dakota State, Omaha and Bradley. The Lopes swept the field in 2015, including a decisive 30-7 victory over Bradley. The GCU Classic provided the Lopes with the first three of seven consecutive wins to open up what would be a WAC championship season.

GCU's pitching rotation will feature the same four with a slightly adjusted order. Ethan Evanko, who started the Lopes' second game last weekend, moves to the front of the rotation to face Central Michigan. Evanko will be followed by Perez (vs. Tennessee), Repavich (vs. Central Michigan) and Tyler Wyatt (vs. Saint Mary's).

Thursday's tournament opener will be broadcasted on KXXT 1010 AM in the Phoenix area and online at familyvaluesradio1010.com with the pregame show starting at 12:45 p.m. MT. Friday night's game vs. Tennessee will be televised on Cox7 Arizona and cox7.com/live, with the pregame show beginning at 6:30 p.m. MT.

ALL-TIME SERIES
vs. Central Michigan - no prior meetings
vs. Tennessee - Tennessee leads series 2-1 (three-game series in 2015)
vs. Saint Mary's - Saint Mary's lead series 2-0

SCOUTING CENTRAL MICHIGAN
The Chippewas faced a tough test to open 2016, dropping three contests to No. 22 Arkansas in front of crowds as big as 11,341. The Razorbacks limited CMU to a .188 (16-for-85) average over the series. Central Michigan was led by freshman infielder Jason Sullivan, who went 4-for-10 in the series and redshirt freshman Dazon Cole who went 3-for-9.

Last season, Central Michigan finished with a 35-22 record and 20-7 in conference play to lead the Mid-American. Despite the MAC's top record, CMU was swiftly eliminated from the conference tournament with two losses. The Chippewas were picked as the favorites to win the MAC West in 2016.

SCOUTING TENNESSEE
The Volunteers opened up the 2016 campaign with a series victory over Memphis. Tennessee claimed Games 1 and 3 by scores of 8-4 and 5-2, but dropped the middle game of the series 13-8. The Vols have a talented core of seniors including four that batted over .400 in last weekend's series: Vincent Jackson (OF), Chris Hall (OF), Derek Lance (OF) and Jeff Moberg (INF). None of Tennessee's pitchers tossed more than 4.0 innings in a game vs. Memphis.

Tennessee finished 24-26 overall a year ago, including an 11-18 record amid a grueling SEC schedule. The Volunteers were picked to finish last in the SEC East this season while third baseman Nick Senzel was named to the Preseason All-SEC First Team.

In Knoxville last season, the Lopes had trouble scoring on Tennessee's pitching staff, but were able to snatch one game of a three-game series with the Vols. GCU scored one run in each game, including a 1-0 victory in the middle game. Coley Bruns tossed 6.1 innings of shutout baseball while four other pitchers combined to throw the last 2.2 innings. Schwartz scored GCU's lone run of the contest.

SCOUTING SAINT MARY'S
The Gaels took three of four games over opening weekend from GCU's WAC foe, Seattle U in addition to topping UC Santa Barbara in a mid-week affair. Saint Mary's enters the GCU Classic with, by far, the best staff ERA of any participating team -- a 2.60. Joey Fiske, Edward Haus, Nate Nolan and Zach Kirtley are the Gaels' top hitters with averages over .300. Only two members of Saint Mary's roster are from outside of California.

A 28-27 overall record and a 10-17 mark in WCC play led Saint Mary's to an eighth-place finish in the standings a year ago. The conference's coaches have confidence in a turnaround season for the Gaels in 2016, however, choosing them as a third-place finish in the preseason poll. In 2015, Saint Mary's was swept by GCU's opening weekend opponent, Gonzaga.

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Players Mentioned

Coley Bruns

Ethan Evanko

Jorge Perez

Jake Repavich

Garrison Schwartz

Brandon Smith

Tyler Wyatt

Grand Canyon University Athletics