Lopes toss combined 1-hitter

Sunday, April 15

Edinburg, Texas

10 a.m.

Grand Canyon

19-16, 10-2

UTRGV

18-18, 4-5

Grand Canyon

UT Rio Grande Valley

4/15/2018 12:50:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

GCU wins 13th consecutive conference series

By: Josh Hauser

EDINBURG, Texas - Behind 6.0 no-hit innings from Ethan Evanko, Grand Canyon combined to one-hit UT Rio Grande Valley. With a 5-0 win, GCU clinched its 13th consecutive series victory in Western Athletic Conference play.

UTRGV's lone base hit of the day came in the ninth inning, as the leadoff batter hit a bloop single into shallow right field.

Evanko tied his career-high in innings pitched (6.0) while setting it in strikeouts (10). The lefty improved to 2-1 on the season and helped GCU win its first rubber game of the season.

"We've talked about winning series," Stankiewicz said. "UTRGV is a good ballclub. It's tough to come down here-- it always has been. It all started with Ethan. He did a great job establishing for us early. Realistically we thought he'd give us four or five innings. To do what he did -- six strong innings like that of no-hit baseball -- that's huge."

Nick Ohanian, Josh Andrews and Mick Vorhof each tossed one scoreless inning of relief in back of Evanko.

"When we can go to Ohanian and Andrews and Vorhof, we feel like we're going to be in a good spot," Stankiewicz said. "They all came in and did their job. It's kind of cool to see how guys are starting to learn their roles and buy into their role and get excited about their role. That was really good to see from a pitching standpoint."

The Lopes missed a couple of good opportunities to get on the board early but finally broke through in the fifth. Zach Malis doubled to lead off the frame, advanced to second on Tyler Wyatt's sacrifice bunt, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Preston Pavlica.

GCU extended its lead in the sixth when the same cast of characters helped the Lopes score four times. Quin Cotton and Pikai Winchester each hit singles, and Malis drew a walk to load up the bases.

In what turned out to be the hit of the game, Wyatt doubled to the left-center field gap with two outs, clearing the bases and putting the Lopes in front 4-0.

"That was huge," Stankiewicz said. "That was a big take by Zach. They were kind of pitching around him because he's been swinging a good bat. Tyler put a nice ball in the gap that scored three. That was a huge AB for us to give us some space there as we get into those later innings. Zach Malis had a great weekend with the bat, and Tyler Wyatt put a nice AB together to get us three."

Pavlica followed behind with a single to score Wyatt and pad the Lopes' lead further.

The 5-0 win marked GCU's first shutout victory of the season. It nearly became the program's first no-hitter since 1982 before the Vaqueros broke it up in the ninth.

Cotton, Malis, Ian Evans and David Avitia each had two-hit days for the Lopes.

With another series victory in hand, the Lopes will briefly return to Phoenix for a mid-week matchup with UC Riverside on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. MST.