GCU deals too many free passes in loss to Kansas

Tuesday, April 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

7:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

19-20

Kansas

20-20

Kansas

Grand Canyon

4/25/2017 11:21:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - The Grand Canyon baseball team fell to Kansas 9-4 in the opener of a brief two-game mid-week series on Tuesday night. The Lopes' pitching staff struggled to find the strike zone on a night where the Jayhawks took advantage of 17 free passes issued by GCU pitchers.

"It starts on the mound," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "It always has, and it always will. We didn't get a good start and it put us behind the eight-ball. We put together some good at bats to get back in it, but then we did the same thing again later in the game. A lot of free passes."

Both Grand Canyon and Kansas posted three-run tallies in the first four innings of the game with each team taking advantage of its opponents' mistakes. The Jayhawks scored three in the third, using a pair of leadoff walks and back-to-back hit batsmen to push across runs. The Lopes struck for three runs in the fourth to make it a one-run ballgame, scoring two unearned runs due to Jayhawk errors.

While struggling with walks and hit batsmen all night, GCU's defense came up big in a few different situations. Double plays in the second and third innings got Grand Canyon out of huge jams on the base paths, including a bases-loaded one-out situation in the second.

"We made some good plays defensively. We turned a couple of double plays to get out of bases-loaded jams to hopefully get some momentum back on ous side," Stankiewicz said. "We just have to do a better job of commanding our fastball. We were behind on just about everybody."

The major bright spot out of GCU's bullpen was junior right-hander Jeramy Smith. He tossed three perfect innings of baseball in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, retiring all nine Kansas batters he faced. But with season-highs of 3.0 innings and 35 pitches, Smith's night was ended in no way due to lack of performance.

"He hadn't thrown in awhile," Stankiewicz said, with Smith last throwing on April 4 in Arkansas. "He did a great job, no doubt. But we felt like he hasn't pitched in awhile, and we didn't no if extending him too far was the right move. He did a nice job of shutting them down in those middle innings."

Kansas out-numbered Grand Canyon in the hits column by just one tally, but the Lopes issued 17 free passes compared to just five for the visitors.

Tom Lerouge and Garrison Schwartz -- the walk-off heroes from the two previous games -- both had multi-hit efforts for the Lopes. Josh Meyer, however, provided the offensive highlight of the night with a two-run double to left-center field to get the Lopes on the board in the fourth inning.

The teams are set to close out the mid-week series on Wednesday afternoon at Brazell Stadium. With both teams yet to name a starter, first pitch is set for 1 p.m. MST.