Wong spins 7.1 two-hit innings in series-opening win

Friday, March 31

Phoenix, Ariz.

7:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

10-14, 0

Northern Colorado

11-13, 0

Northern Colorado

Grand Canyon

3/31/2017 10:34:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - Jake Wong threw 7.1 innings of scoreless, two-hit baseball, and the Lopes flipped the switch offensively in the fourth inning to shut out Northern Colorado 7-0 in the series opener at Brazell Stadium on Friday night. Grand Canyon picked up its fourth straight conference victory to open the WAC slate while Wong improved to 3-1 on the hill. It was the second shutout victory for GCU this season.

"The key to tonight was my slider," Wong said. "My fastball command was not where I wanted it, but dropping the slider in there and landing it really helped me out."

The sophomore right-hander used 105 pitches and five strikeouts to navigate through the Bears' lineup. At one point, Wong retired 12 consecutive batters in the latter stages of his outing.

"That's a credit to my defense," Wong said. "When I was struggling, I was pressing a little bit but they stayed with me and played some solid defense. It's a team game."

At times this season, Grand Canyon had struggled to offer Wong the run support that he deserved. That was not the case on this Friday evening.

The Lopes were held scoreless through the first third of the ballgame, but they proceeded to score at least one run in every inning beginning in the fourth.

"We've talked about being able to establish ourselves on a Friday night," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "Jake Wong did a fantastic job of pounding the strike zone. We made some nice plays and were able to jump out in front a little bit. We got a big two-out knock by Austin Bull to get us rolling a little bit."

Doing all of its scoring with two outs in the inning, Grand Canyon grabbed a 3-0 lead in the fourth. Zach Malis led off the inning by bunting a ball that hugged the line so tightly that it knicked the bag at third for a bunt single. Quin Cotton also singled with both runners moving into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Josh Meyer. Bull delivered the key hit in the inning, singling up the middle and scoring two runs. Tom Lerouge put the finishing touches on the inning, singling to left field and driving in Bull to give the Lopes a 3-0 lead.

Grand Canyon followed up its three-run inning with single tallies in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

Meyer drove in a run in the fifth while Ian Evans, Cotton and Lerouge all delivered sacrifice flies in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, respectively.

Bull continued his hot hitting with a 3-for-5 night, singling in his last three at bats of Friday's contest. The switch-hitting sophomore improved his team-best batting average to .391 on the year. Lerouge and Cotton also logged multi-hit games.

In a tag-team effort by Wong and reliever AJ Franks, Grand Canyon allowed a Northern Colorado baserunner to reach second base on just two occasions. GCU worked around a double in the fourth as Wong drew a strikeout and ground out to end the threat. Franks nullified a two-out double in the ninth by making a nice defensive play to end the game on a 1-3 ground out.

Beginning the series on the right foot, the Lopes have the opportunity to clinch a series victory when the two teams meet up again on Saturday afternoon. First pitch from Brazell Stadium is set for 2 p.m. MST with GCU sending Jake Repavich (2-2, 4.14) to the hill to face Troy Watson (3-1, 5.64).