Lopes set to square off against No. 15 Arkansas

TUESDAY, APRIL 4 - WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5
GRAND CANYON LOPES 12-14 (6-0 WAC) SERIES RELEASE	vs.	ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS 22-6 (7-2 SEC) ~~SERIES RELEASE~~

GAME ONE	GAME TWO
Tuesday, 4:35 p.m. MST	Wednesday, 1:05 p.m. MST
RHP Barrett Loseke (3-0, 2.87) vs.	LHP Kacey Murphy (2-0, 4.61) vs.
LHP Gabe Benavides (0-0, 4.96)	LHP Tyler Hansen (0-1, 4.50)
TBA \| SECN+	TBA \| SECN+

Coming off of another series sweep in Western Athletic Conference play, the Grand Canyon baseball team is off to Fayetteville, Ark. for a two-game mid-week series with No. 15 Arkansas. The road date begins a five-game road trip and a stretch of eight games on the road in a nine-game span. It is the first ever meeting between the schools. Both games will be streamed on the SECN+, available to select cable subscribers through WatchESPN.

Last time out, GCU dominated Northern Colorado in a three-game WAC series, outscoring the visiting Bears 31-5. Grand Canyon ran its conference record to 6-0, the best start to a conference schedule since going 7-0 in 1999. The Lopes hit 40-for-100 (.400) on the series. While the offense was really clicking, the pitching staff was just as impressive. GCU's starting pitching trio of Jake Wong, Jake Repavich and Jack Schneider combined to throw 18.2 innings, allowing just four earned runs (1.96 ERA).

Wong was especially dominate, tossing a career-high 7.1 innings in Friday night's series opener. As a part of a combined shutout, Wong limited the Bears offense to two hits and no runs. For his efforts, Wong was named the WAC Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season. The sophomore lowered his conference-leading ERA to 1.36.

The matchup with the No. 15 team in the country continues a challenging schedule of competition for Grand Canyon. Prior to last weekend's series with Northern Colorado, the Lopes had the 12th-toughest strength of schedule in the country. GCU faced No. 13 Arizona last week, has this week's mid-week matchup with No. 15 Arkansas, and matches back up with now-No. 8 Arizona at Brazell Stadium next weekend.

Following a disappointing 2016 campaign, Arkansas has made quite the turnaround. The Razorbacks started last year with a bang, off to an 8-0 start with three top-25 wins. It went downhill from that point, however, as the Hogs went 7-23 in SEC play.

Fast forward to this point in 2017 and Arkansas has matched last year's conference win total just three weekends into SEC play. They opened with a sweep of Mississippi State, took two of three at No. 18 Missouri, and just claimed two of three on the road from Alabama.

Both Grand Canyon and Arkansas have lost games to Arizona (GCU lost 3-2, Arkansas lost 3-0). Additionally, the Lopes claimed two of three from Oklahoma State while the Razorbacks lost their one contest with OSU.

Grand Canyon has a relatively short history against SEC foes, going 1-6 in limited matchups with current schools of the conference. Most recently, the Lopes hosted Tennessee last season and traveled to Knoxville in 2015.

Following the pair of games at Baum Stadium, which seats nearly 11,000 fans, Grand Canyon will close out the five-game road trip back in WAC play at Sacramento State.

First pitch for Tuesday's opener is set for 4:35 p.m. MST, and the teams will close out the brief series on Wednesday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. MST.

For more news and notes, click here for the 2017 GCU Baseball Media Guide and click here for the series release.

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Players Mentioned

Gabe Benavides

Austin Bull

Tyler Hansen

Bobby Milacki

Jake Repavich

Jack Schneider

Jake Wong

Grand Canyon University Athletics