Lopes head to UTRGV to close out season

Thursday, May 19 - 5 p.m. MST
	RHP Cameron Brendel 4-4, 4.41 ERA	RHP Johnny Gonzalez 5-2, 2.33 ERA
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Friday, May 20 - 4 p.m. MST
	RHP Jake Wong 1-3, 4.71	RHP Ryan Jackson 3-4, 4.42 ERA
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Saturday, May 21 - 10 a.m. MST
	RHP Tyler Wyatt 2-4, 5.34 ERA	RHP Andrew Garcia 7-5, 3.35 ERA
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PHOENIX -- The Grand Canyon baseball team will conclude its 2016 season on the road against UT Rio Grande Valley. The Lopes will start the three-game road series against the Vaqueros on Thursday, May 19, and finishing up on Saturday, rather than the normal Sunday finale. Heading into the final weekend, the Lopes has a chance to end the season with a winning record, currently at 11-13 in the Western Athletic Conference.

It is a key series in the WAC as the Lopes will look to hold off the Vaqueros in the standings as UTRGV sits in seventh, directly behind GCU. All three games will be broadcasted on the GCU Radio Network.

LAST TIME OUT
The Lopes wrapped up its non-conference schedule on Tuesday, May 17, with a matchup against Nevada. GCU honored its eight seniors before facing Nevada at Brazell Stadium. In his first career start, the senior, Jaren Drummond, took the mound and pitched a season-high 3.1 innings. The senior allowed two runs off three hits with two strikeouts. In their final game at Brazell Stadium, the seniors delivered as the four GCU players in the lineup (Panacionne, Smith, Leal and Steirstorfer) combined hit 6-for-16 with six of the Lopes' 10 RBI. Panaccione went 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and three runs scored. Leal was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Thomas Lerouge went 5-for-6 with two runs scored. Five hits was a career-high for the sophomore.

In terms of WAC play, despite losing their last WAC series to Sacramento State, the Lopes ended the three-game matchup on a high note winning the finale in one of the best performances of the season. After starting pitcher, Tyler Wyatt, was solid through 6.1 innings allowing three runs, Mick Vorhof came in for relief and was exceptional. Vorhof picked up the win after throwing 2.2 scoreless innings against the Hornets. With the victory, GCU snapped a six-game losing streak.

SERIES HISTORY
The Lopes hold a 4-2 all-time record against the Vaqueros. In GCU's first year in the WAC in 2014, UTRGV took two of three games at home as all three games were decided by one run. Last year at Brazell Stadium, GCU swept the Vaqueros outscoring UTRGV 32-17.

SCOUTING UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY
The Vaqueros are in the top-half of the WAC in terms of batting average, ranking fifth in the conference, hitting .264 as a team, just behind GCU at .272. Jose Garcia has been a hitting machine for UTRGV this season, hitting .365 for the season, which is the third best average in the WAC. Garcia leads UTRGV with 62 hits including 13 doubles and 14 stolen bases, the only UTRGV player to have double-digit steals this season. Eight different batters have hit a home run this season, but only Joseph Collazo and Scott Mercer have hit two homers this year. The Vaqueros have had three WAC honors during the year as Johnny Gonzalez was named WAC Pitcher of the Week on March 21 and on April 11 the Vaqueros swept the WAC weekly honors as Mercer was awarded WAC Hitter of the Week and Andrew Garcia was named Pitcher of the Week. UTRGV's pitching staff has had an exceptional year with the third lowest ERA in the WAC at 4.38 for the year.

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Players Mentioned

Cameron Brendel

Jaren Drummond

Tom Lerouge

Mick Vorhof

Jake Wong

Tyler Wyatt

Grand Canyon University Athletics