Lopes claim opener from UTRGV with balanced attack

Friday, April 21

Phoenix, Ariz.

7:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

17-19, 0

UT Rio Grande Valley

21-20, 0

UT Rio Grande Valley

Grand Canyon

4/21/2017 10:56:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - A clunky first three innings gave way to a much quicker final six frames as the Lopes used hits from eight different players to take the opener from UTRGV 9-4 on Friday night at Brazell Stadium. Five GCU batters had multi-hit games in the Lopes' 13-hit effort.

It wasn't the prettiest of displays from either side in a game that featured nine walks and three errors, most of which came in the first third of the ballgame. Despite not putting its best game together, Grand Canyon emerged with its third straight victory to improve to 11-2 in WAC play.

Jake Wong didn't possess his best command but was able to gut through 5.2 innings of work and set the Lopes in a position for success. The righty claimed his fifth victory of the season after allowing seven hits and three earned runs while striking out five.

"He wasn't as sharp as we've seen him in the past," head coach Andy Stankiewicz noted. "But he did a great job of just staying competitive and making some big pitches. We gave up that three in that one inning, but he did a nice job to keep it to three and weather the storm."

Up just three in the seventh, Preston Pavlica made Lopes fans feel a little more comfortable by extending the lead to five with his first home run of the season. The sophomore missed 27 games with a wrist injury and was playing in his first game at Brazell Stadium since Feb. 20.

"It was a fastball in," Pavlica recalled. "I have to give that to Coach Stankiewicz, he told me to step off the plate a little bit, and he said I was going to crush one. I knew I squared it up well."

It was the proven bullpen duo of AJ Franks and Mick Vorhof that closed things out, throwing 3.1 innings of scoreless, hitless baseball.

"AJ did what AJ does," Stankiewicz said. "Just pound the ball low in the zone. They put the ball in play, and usually it's a bunch of ground balls. The guys are ready to play defense behind him."

An interesting night began with the Vaqueros changing starting pitchers in the moments leading up to the ballgame, opting to go with lefty Josh Witherspoon after scheduled starter Carter Johnson couldn't go.

Both teams plated a first-inning run. The Lopes took advantage of three drawn walks issued by last-minute starter Witherspoon, with Garrison Schwartz driving in the tying run to answer the Vaqueros' opening inning score.

Grand Canyon scored three runs in the second inning to open up an early lead. The Lopes used base knocks from Josh Meyer, Tom Lerouge and Ian Evans in the frame to go along with two walks. Austin Bull drove in a run on a fielder's choice, Evans' single scored another and a sacrifice fly by the club's RBI leader, Schwartz, pushed across the final run of the inning.

The Vaqueros, however, immediately responded with a three-spot of their own. UTRGV's first three batters reached on base hits in the third inning with all three eventually coming around to score.

The slow-paced, back-and-forth affair continued as the Lopes reclaimed their lead with a pair of runs in the third. Grand Canyon pounded out five hits in the frame. A Meyer single scored Zach Malis, who had singled earlier in the frame, followed by a Lerouge single scoring Marc Mumper, who had also reached on a hit.

At the conclusion of the first third of the ballgame, which took nearly two hours to complete, the teams had combined for 10 runs on 14 hits.

The final six innings moved along much quicker with the Lopes throwing up six zeroes to round out the contest.

Lerouge, Evans, Schwartz, Malis and Meyer all notched multi-hit games for Grand Canyon.

The two teams meet again at Brazell Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Lopes will send left-hander Jake Repavich (4-3, 4.19 ERA) to face scheduled starter Andrew Garcia (4-2, 3.71 ERA). First pitch is set for 2 p.m. MST.