Lopes allow five-run ninth, fall to San Francisco

Saturday, March 11

Phoenix, Ariz.

2:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

3-8

San Francisco

10-5

San Francisco

Grand Canyon

3/11/2017 5:49:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - Just one strike away from an 8-7 victory, the Lopes allowed four more runs to score in a five-run ninth inning for San Francisco. Grand Canyon fell to the Dons 11-8 at Brazell Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The late-game struggles for GCU blew a solid start from RHP Jake Wong who gave up just one earned run in six innings of work.

"We got a lead late and we just have to make better pitches," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "We gave up eight runs in the last three innings of the ballgame. You give up that many runs late, you're scrambling. We're better than that. We have to bear down and make better pitches in those moments. We need to not be hoping we're going to succeed, but knowing we're going to succeed."

San Francisco had three innings of three runs or more, all coming in the second half of the game. The Dons scored three in the fifth, three in the seventh and five in the game-changing ninth inning. The Lopes bullpen surrendered eight runs -- all earned -- on nine hits.

Wong tossed six innings, allowing six hits but just one earned run. The sophomore was in line for his third victory of the season before the Dons mounted their comeback.

"Wong did a really nice job," Stankiewicz said. "He gave us six strong innings. He's a big, physical young man. As we get deeper in the year, we'd like to see him go further in the game. But he did everything a starting pitcher is supposed to do. He left the game with a lead, but unfortunately we gave it back up."

For the second straight game, the Lopes led the game off with back-to-back singles. Austin Bull and Garrison Schwartz each found a hole in the right side of the infield. Later in the frame, Cuba Bess came up with a bases-loaded infield single to get GCU on the board. Grand Canyon missed out on playing add-on, lining into a double play as the Dons got out of the inning.

Grand Canyon struck for three runs in the home-half of the third, working exclusively with two outs in the frame. Ian Evans, Bess, Zach Malis and Tyler Wyatt strung together four consecutive base hits, the middle two of which were doubles down the right field line. Malis and Wyatt were credited with RBIs as the Lopes jumped out to a 4-0 lead.

The Dons balanced out GCU's previous three-run inning with three scores of their own in the top of the fifth. Of the three runs, only one was earned as a pair of errors in the frame prolonged the inning for Wong and the Lopes' defense. Grand Canyon exited the top of the fifth clinging to a 4-3 edge.

But GCU quickly erased the damage done by San Francisco, equaling the Dons with three runs in the home-half of the fifth. The Lopes took advantage of a pair of leadoff free passes -- one a walk and one a hit batsman. Evans delivered the lone base hit of the inning to load the bases. Despite the ball not leaving the infield for the next few batters, Grand Canyon recorded productive outs. Bess and Malis drove in runs on infield ground balls. Bess would later cap off the scoring by coming home on a wild pitch.

Leading from wire to wire previously, Grand Canyon trailed for the first time after allowing five runs in the ninth. The Dons used five hits -- two of which were home runs -- to do the damage.

The Lopes put a couple of runners on in the home-half of the ninth, but couldn't scratch across any runs en route to the loss.

GCU posted its fifth consecutive double-digit hitting performance, a feat which they did not accomplish all of last year. All 12 hits came from the first six in the lineup with the No. 1 through 5 hitters all posting multi-hit games. Bess led the way with three hits while Malis tallied three RBIs.

The Lopes will look to salvage the series finale against San Francisco before returning to the road. First pitch on Sunday is set for 1 p.m. MST with lefty Jake Repavich (1-1, 4.08) set to start for GCU.