Extra-inning heroics of McDonald, Smith lead GCU to win

Tuesday, March 14

Las Vegas, Nev.

6:05 p.m.

Grand Canyon

5-8

UNLV

8-9

Grand Canyon

UNLV

Extra-inning heroics of McDonald, Smith lead GCU to win

3/14/2017 11:57:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Josh Hauser

LAS VEGAS - With the bases loaded, two outs and two strikes for Jared McDonald in the 11th inning, the sophomore lined a ball past UNLV's second baseman, driving in two runs on what proved to be the game-winning hit in a 10-8 victory at Earl Wilson Stadium on Tuesday night.

"Coach Stankiewicz harps on just spreading your feet out and putting the ball in play and good things will happen," McDonald said. "That's what I did. I choked up, spread my feet out and just put the ball in play. Good things happened."

A double to deep center field by Tyler Wyatt and an important stolen base by Quin Cotton set up the opportunity for McDonald. After driving in 19 RBIs on 21 hits last year, McDonald picked up his first two RBIs of the 2017 season. They could not have come at a more opportune time.

"It was great," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said of the hit. "Jared has worked hard to be a part of this ball club. It's good to see that he got that big hit."

Jeramy Smith spun two scoreless frames in extras, getting the first win of his GCU career. The right-hander struck out four batters, including the final two in the bottom of the 11th inning with a pair of runners in scoring position.

"Gutsy," Stankiewicz said of Smith's outing. "We used everybody out of the bullpen today. Jeramy responded great. He came in and pounded the zone. He has a good change-up and was able to keep them off balance. I'm proud of him just waiting and waiting and then taking advantage of the opportunity."

With three one-run tallies, UNLV jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. An error hurt the Lopes in the first, with the Rebels scoring an unearned run. Ernie De La Trinidad opened up the second inning with a home run. The Rebels achieved their 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, as a leadoff triple eventually scored.

After recording just one hit through four, Grand Canyon plated four runs in the fifth inning to sharply swing the momentum. With a little patience at the plate, GCU loaded the bases on a hit batsman and two drawn walks. Garrison Schwartz took full advantage of the bases-loaded situation, logging Grand Canyon's first triple of the season and clearing the bases. Ian Evans made it back-to-back extra-base hits with a double to right, bringing in Schwartz and granting the Lopes a 4-3 lead.

Both sides scored a run in the sixth, keeping the Lopes lead at one run. Cotton, who led off the inning with a single, would later come in to score on an RBI groundout from Marc Mumper.

GCU tacked on key insurance runs in a three-run eighth inning. Entering the frame with just five hits on the evening, Grand Canyon nearly doubled its hit total with four in the frame. With one away, Cotton tripled and Kona Quiggle doubled to push across a run. Another run came into score on a balk, while Tom Lerouge -- who legged out a bunt single -- scored on a two-out knock from Austin Bull. The Lopes left the top of the eighth inning with an 8-4 lead in hand.

But with four runs between the eighth and ninth innings, the Rebels forced extras. In the first extra-inning game of the year for Grand Canyon, the Lopes claimed victory.

Fourty-four players saw action in Tuesday's contest with GCU employing eight pitchers to get the job done. Coach Stankiewicz also used five position player substitutions. Twenty-two Grand Canyon players were used, resulting in the collegiate debuts of several Lopes including Dane Stankiewicz, Jack Schneider and Tyler Hansen. Additionally, lefty Gabe Benavides made his first collegiate start and allowed just one earned run in 2.2 innings.

"We tell them all the time, even if you're not starting, stay ready. You never know when you're going to get in the game," Stankiewicz said. "Tonight is a perfect example. I think we used every position player."

GCU posted its seventh consecutive game with 10 or more hits. Bull led Grand Canyon with three hits, while Cotton posted his second consecutive multi-hit game.

The Lopes and Rebels close out the brief two-game mid-week series at 2:05 p.m. MST on Wednesday. RHP Josh Sieglitz will make his debut as a starting pitcher for Grand Canyon.

NOTES: Grand Canyon has seven consecutive double-digit hitting efforts for the first time since April 2015 ... Austin Bull has led off the game with a base hit in four consecutive games and, overall, is on an eight-game hitting streak ... GCU's 22 players used was the most since the second game of 2016, when the Lopes also used 22 players against Gonzaga ... Quin Cotton had his first multi-hit game vs. San Francisco on Sunday and now has back-to-back ... Grand Canyon has now won back-to-back games in its last time at bat ... Tuesday's game time of 4:04 was the longest of the season ... after entering Tuesday's game without recording a triple, the Lopes had two on Tuesday night with Garrison Schwartz and Quin Cotton.