Triples key offensive surge

Friday, March 2

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

3-5

CSUN

6-4

Cal State Northridge

Grand Canyon

3/2/2018 10:20:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Five Lopes post multi-hit games

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - Grand Canyon put together its best offensive performance of the young season on Friday night, opening its participation in the GCU Classic with a 13-8 victory over a scorching hot CSUN offense. The Lopes used 12 hits to get back in the win column, using a four-run sixth to jump out to an 11-5 lead.

The Lopes got offensive contributions from up and down the lineup with five batters recording multi-hit efforts. Leading the charge was leadoff man Kona Quiggle who put together a 3-for-4 performance with four runs scored. Pikai Winchester -- in the designated hitter role for the first time this season -- went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and a run scored.

"I saw a lot of fastballs," Winchester said. "Just be ready for the fastball and try to use the middle of the field. Thanks to my teammates getting on, it gave me the opportunity to put something in play and make something happen. One through nine we can all hit. We just have to give ourselves a chance by putting the ball in play."

Preston Pavlica and Ian Evans both homered in the game, the first multi-home run game of the season for the Lopes. Pavlica's was a solo shot to left to give GCU a 7-5 lead in the fifth. Evans hit his first long ball of the year, a two-run shot in the eighth to give the Lopes insurance.

But perhaps of more value than the home runs were timely triples by GCU. The Lopes used three triples -- the most in a game since April 19, 2014 at Northern Colorado.

Quin Cotton tripled in the third to narrow an early deficit. Marc Mumper hit a two-out triple in the sixth to get the wheels turning in an important inning. And arguably the biggest hit of the night was a bases-clearing triple in the sixth to turn an 8-5 GCU edge into a much more comfortable 11-5 lead.

"It was a good at bat by Mump getting the triple, just stayed on it," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "I think the guys hopefully saw tonight that what we did well today from an offensive standpoint is we kept grinding out at bats and put some AB's together late. It was good to see us play a full nine and not get discouraged when it didn't look so good early."

Jake Wong got the start for GCU and worked his was through 5.1 hard-earned innings. Despite allowing nine hits, Wong earned his first victory of the year after a 92-pitch outing.

"He did a nice job of that -- just competing," Stankiewicz said. "He did a good job of minimizing. We always talk about even if you don't have your best stuff, if you can keep it to a one or a two [run inning], at least we feel like we have a chance to stay on it and stay in the game and put some at bats together. That's what we did tonight. I was really proud of him just grinding his way through it and competing. These guys [CSUN] can hit a little bit as you can see."

After the Matadors had scored runs in each of the first four frames, Mick Vorhof came on in relief and tossed 2.2 innings of scoreless, one-hit baseball. He struck out five while walking just one.

Quiggle, Cotton, Winchester, Pavlica and Mumper all finished with multi-hit games for GCU.

The Lopes have a busy Saturday on tap as the GCU Classic rolls on. GCU gets a rematch with CSUN at 2 p.m. MST before getting its first shot at Valparaiso in a 6 p.m. MST nightcap. Mike Lundin and Jake Repavich are scheduled to start the two games for the Lopes.