Lopes take down UNLV on squeeze bunt

Tuesday, April 3

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

13-14

UNLV

22-8

UNLV

Grand Canyon

4/3/2018 9:35:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Stankiewicz's squeeze bunt in eighth pushes GCU ahead

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - Grand Canyon came from behind in the late innings to defeat UNLV 5-3 on Tuesday night at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark. The Lopes have won eight of their last nine home games.

GCU fell behind 3-2 after allowing two runs to score in the sixth inning. But the Lopes scored three times in the eighth to complete the comeback and seal the victory.

In the pivotal eighth inning, Zach Malis drew a leadoff walk and swiped second base. Preston Pavlica came up with the game-tying hit, a triple that rolled to the left-center field wall and scored Malis. Pavlica used his speed to get to third and ensure the go-ahead run was just 90 feet away.

"He didn't settle for just the double," assistant coach Gregg Wallis said. "A lot of times guys hit that ball in the gap and they're happy being on second base with nobody out. But him getting to third base was really the difference in the ballgame."

It proved to be the difference in the game because a pinch-hitting Dane Stankiewicz layed down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to score Pavlica and give GCU the 4-3 lead.

"I knew it was a possibility," Dane Stankiewicz said. "Pavlica is a good runner at third. I'm an execution guy, I get the bunt down if I need to."

The Lopes scored an insurance run to go up 5-3 when Austin Bull reached on a fielding error.

With the lead in hand, GCU turned to Mick Vorhof who struck out the first two batters he faced and ending the game with a groundout. Vorhof picked up his second save of the season.

"Mick's been outstanding coming out of the bullpen," Wallis said. "Our bullpen is really starting to come together."

Nick Hull got the start on the hill for GCU and posted 5.0 solid innings, exiting with a 2-1 lead in hand. Hull allowed four hits and just one first-inning run while striking out two.

"I just wanted to come out here and give my team a chance to win the game," Hull said. "I changed a couple things with my mechanics with my front foot in my timing and it's worked out well. "Fastball command was pretty good today. I struggled with my curveball in the first -- probably why he took that one off me. After I found my curveball, I felt pretty good."

Hull helped his own cause by erasing a pair of baserunners with two pickoffs on the day. The freshman picked off runners in the third and fifth innings.

"I've always been a big pickoff guy," Hull said. "I feel like I have a pretty good move, and I had two of them tonight."

At one point, Hull retired 10 of the 11 batters he faced. It was Hull's best performance since posting a similar line on Opening Weekend in GCU's win over TCU.

"Nick gave us a great start. He gave up one in the first, but we talk about minimizing and he did a great job. He just gave up that one and then threw out a bunch of zeros."

GCU grabbed its original lead by posting single tallies in the first and third innings. In both instances, it was a leadoff single helping the cause.

In the first, Bull singled and was replaced by Quin Cotton after a fielder's choice. Cotton stole second, went to third on a throwing error, and scored on an RBI groundout by Pikai Winchester.

Two innings later, GCU claimed its first lead of the game. Cotton singled up the middle, moved to second on a sac bunt, advanced to third on his second steal of the game, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ian Evans.

The Rebels scored two in the sixth to reclaim their lead, but Nick Ohanian limited what could have been a much bigger inning. Entering with the bases loaded and nobody out, Ohanian retired all three batters he faced and kept the Lopes within reach.

"Ohanian's been great," Wallis said. "Ohanian came and gave us two really big innings, getting us out of that jam with relatively little damage."

Josh Andrews pitched a scoreless inning of relief and earned his first win of the season.

A well-rounded offensive effort saw eight of the nine GCU starters pick up base hits on the evening.

The two teams finish out the mid-week series on Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. GCU will send RHP Drew Zmuda (0-1, 5.06) to the mound against a UNLV starter to be named.