Lopes top No. 25 Illinois in opener

Friday, April 20

Champaign, Ill.

4 p.m.

Grand Canyon

21-16

Illinois

23-10

Grand Canyon

Illinois

4/20/2018 8:50:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

GCU's pitching staff continues string of success, holding Illini to three hits

By: Josh Hauser

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Grand Canyon's pitching staff limited No. 25 Illinois to one run on three hits as the Lopes opened the weekend series with a 5-1 victory on Friday night.

Jake Wong (6-1, 2.16) set the tone with six strong innings. He faced the minimum through the first two innings and took a no-hitter into the fifth.

"It starts with Jake on the mound," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "Just establishing his fastball and pounding it for strikes -- in and out. That's a good-hitting team. They can hit. Credit to him. He did a great job setting the tempo. He stayed in his game plan and continued making big pitches."

The righty limited the Illini to just two hits, one of which was a solo home run to Illinois' (23-10) Bren Spillane, one of the nation's top hitters.

"He gave up the home run but there was no panic," Stankiewicz said. "'Okay, it's a home run. They're up by one. Let's get back to work.' He did a nice job of toeing the rubber tonight."

Behind Wong, the tested duo of Nick Ohanian and Mick Vorhof finished off the final third of the ballgame. Ohanian struck out five of the seven batters he faced over two innings of work. Vorhof struck out the side in the ninth.

Over the last three games, GCU (21-16) has limited its opponents to two runs on 10 hits with 35 strikeouts and a 0.67 ERA.

The Lopes immediately absorbed the blow of the solo homer by scoring two runs in the ensuing half-inning. Quin Cotton began the sixth by reaching on an error and Pikai Winchester singled. Cotton eventually scored on a wild pitch, while Ian Evans scored the go-ahead run on a Zach Malis sacrifice fly.

Wong took the momentum from GCU's offense and ran with it. In the home-half of the sixth -- the junior's final inning of work -- he set the Illini down in order including two strikeouts.

GCU posted two more runs in the seventh. With a pair of runners in scoring position and two out, Cotton singled to right-center field, driving in two runs and granting GCU a 4-1 lead.

"That was a big knock by Quin," Stankiewicz said. "We were trying to help him stay up the middle of the field. He's so good when he uses the middle of the diamond and stays elevated."

The Lopes added on one more run in the ninth when Austin Bull hit his fourth double in four games, scoring Marc Mumper all the way from first base.

GCU limited Illinois to three hits, matching the Illini's lowest hit total of the season. The Lopes have now won 14 of its last 17 games.

Ohanian has struck out 48 batters in 29.1 innings, a mark that would rank third nationally if he had a qualifying number of innings.

The Lopes and Illini will resume the series on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. MST.