Lopes meet UC Riverside on road

Wednesday, March 14

Riverside, Calif.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

UC Riverside

Photo by: David Cohen

3/14/2018 9:34:00 AM | Baseball

GCU rides weekend sweep into mid-week action

By: Josh Hauser

Riverside, Calif. • Riverside Sports Complex
	vs.
Grand Canyon Lopes (6-8, 0-0 WAC) GAME NOTES		UC Riverside Highlanders (8-8, 0-0 Big West) GAME NOTES

Wednesday, March 14 • 6 p.m. MST
BigWest.tv • Live Stats
RHP [FR] Nick Hull (0-0, 9.22) vs. RHP [R-SR] Max Compton (0-1, 3.77)

Grand Canyon is making its second of four California road trips this season, stopping by UC Riverside for one mid-week matchup before heading to Cal State Fullerton for the weekend. The Lopes will look to build off the successes of last weekend where they won all three games including the final two of the series in walk-off fashion. First pitch against the Highlanders is set for 6 p.m. and will be aired on BigWest.tv.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

GETTING BUSY: Wednesday's game with UC Riverside will begin a stretch of nine games in 12 days for GCU. In that span, the Lopes will play at Cal State Fullerton before returning home to take on a surging Kansas team in mid-week action and then opening Western Athletic Conference play against Chicago State over the weekend.
GOING BACK-TO-BACK: While the obvious back-to-back occurrence last weekend was the walk-offs, Mick Vorhof also accomplished a tough back-to-back feat by being the winning pitcher in both games. Vorhof became the first GCU pitcher to win consecutive games since Malcolm Purdy won games against Sacramento State and Kansas in mid-April 2014. Combined, the senior threw 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing four hits while striking out seven and walking none.
BULL RETURNS: After making a pinch-hit appearance in Game 2 last weekend, junior Austin Bull returned to the starting lineup for the first time this season in Saturday's series finale. GCU's leadoff hitter and leading batting average from a year ago was battling an injury to begin the season. Bull returned in his typical style, casually collecting three hits with a liner to right-center and a pair of hard ground balls through the infield.

SCOUTING

UC RIVERSIDE: A pair of former Big Leaguers lead their respective squads into a mid-week matchup between Troy Percival and Andy Stankiewicz. When Big West play starts vs. UC Davis on March 29, UC Riverside will be chasing its first winning season in Big West Conference play since 2010. The Highlanders finished tied for last in the ever-challenging Big West Conference last season. Since moving to Division I for the 2002 season, UC Riverside is 447-442. The Highlanders most recent trip to the postseason came in 2007.

The Highlanders took two of three games from Utah in a three-game series at the Riverside Sports Complex last weekend. UCR limited the Utes to one run on five hits in a series-opening win. As part of a Sunday doubleheader, the Highlanders opened the day by again limiting Utah to just five hits in a 3-2 victory. Utah's offense finally awakened in the series finale, scoring seven runs on 13 hits to pick up its first win of the season to move to 1-13.

Of the everyday starters, Dean Miller and Colby Schultz lead UC Riverside with .368 and .356 batting averages, respectively.

The teams share seven common opponents on their 2018 schedules. UC Riverside split a pair with Washington State, while GCU fell in one game 5-4. The Highlanders beat Valparaiso twice while the Lopes lost twice.

LAST TIME OUT

The Lopes swept a three-game series vs. Penn State, winning Games 2 and 3 via walk-offs.
In the series opener, Jake Wong set a career high with 10 strikeouts, part of a 19-strikeout performance by the team as a whole. It was the most strikeouts in a game for GCU since returning to Division I.
Preston Pavlica hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in Game 2, while Quin Cotton hit a walk-off double in the finale.

WHAT'S NEXT

Over the weekend, GCU will take on Cal State Fulerton who is coming off another trip to Omaha.
Following that, the Lopes are home for five including two mid-week games against Kansas before beginning WAC play vs. Chicago State.

For more GCU baseball news, notes and numbers, click here to view the series notes and click here to view the media guide.