Wong leads Lopes in defeat of No. 22 Oklahoma State

Friday, February 17

Phoenix, Ariz.

7:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

1-0

Oklahoma State

0-1

Oklahoma State

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Takashi Sato

2/17/2017 10:18:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Jake Hernandez

PHOENIX – The Grand Canyon baseball team defeated No. 22 Oklahoma State in front of 2,357 at Brazell Stadium to open up the 2017 season on Friday night. Jake Wong (1-0) threw 6.0 scoreless innings with a career-high seven strikeouts.

"Wong set the tone early," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "He did a great job and gave us six complete innings. For an opening outing, you can't ask for more of the job he did. He set the tempo for us."

Wong had a career day to open the 2017 season for the Lopes. In 6.0 scoreless innings, the righty had a career-low one hit allowed and a career-high seven strikeouts.

"I threw a lot of fastballs tonight," Wong said. "That's my pitch and that was my best pitch tonight. Against a good team like that, you have to use your 3-0 pitches, my slider and change-up, they were helpful as well. But my fastball was my go-to tonight."

At the plate, the Lopes combined for 12 hits, compared to only four hits by the Cowboys. Austin Bull led Grand Canyon as he went 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored. Ian Evans was 1-for-4 with a double and three RBIs in his first game in a GCU uniform.

"Opening day is always exciting," Stankiewicz commented. "The guys want to start playing games. We were really thankful that we had a nice crowd here, and that means a lot. It was great to see all those students out here supporting our guys. Our guys fed off of it and got it rolling."

The Lopes got on the board first after an Evans' ground ball scored Tom Lerouge to give GCU an early 1-0 lead. In the home half of the third inning, the Lopes scored three runs to bust open the game with a 4-0 lead. A single and walk put two on to set up a stand-up two-RBI double for Evans. Preston Pavlica answered with a double to deep right-center to drive in the fourth Lopes run of the game.

Grand Canyon continued to hit when freshman Kona Quiggle doubled for his first career hit in the fourth inning. Bull later followed with a single up the middle to give GCU a 5-0 lead. In the sixth, a bases loaded single by Quiggle increased the GCU lead to 6-0.

It was not until the bottom of the ninth with two outs that the Cowboys would get on the board. A couple of singles and an enusing double to left by OSU's Dustin Williams gave the Cowboys their lone run of the game as Lopes would go on to win 6-1.

Following up Wong's superb outing, AJ Franks spanned the three innings necessary for his first save of the year.

"It was just an electric atmosphere," Wong said. "Everyone was anxious to get going and get the season started. We got started on the right foot here. We have to keep it going. We've got two more games to play here and get comfortable."

Next up, the Lopes will continue the three-game series against the Cowboys on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. before concluding the opening series on Sunday, Feb. at 1 p.m. Stay posted for potential schedule changes on GCULopes.com.