Repavich, late offense lead GCU to series win

Saturday, April 7

Phoenix, Ariz.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

16-14, 7-1

Utah Valley

12-17, 4-4

Utah Valley

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Michael Rincon

4/7/2018 5:34:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Stankiewicz gets 200th GCU win

By: Josh Hauser

PHOENIX - Jake Repavich tossed his best game of the season and the Lopes' offense came around late as Grand Canyon clinched the series from Utah Valley with an 11-2 win on Saturday afternoon. It was the Lopes' 12th consecutive series victory in conference play, a streak which leads the nation.

Head coach Andy Stankiewicz picked up the 200th victory of his college coaching career.

GCU faced a 2-1 deficit entering the sixth inning, but the Lopes scored 10 runs from the sixth inning on to run away with the victory.

Preston Pavlica highlighted the offensive outburst with his first career grand slam, a shot to left-center in the seventh inning. It was GCU's first grand slam since Paul Panaccione clubbed one in a win over Omaha on March 5, 2016.

"Bases juiced, two outs -- just looking for something good to hit," Pavlica said. "Stank wanted me to bunt on the 2-1, and I fouled it off. Then I got another opportunity and put a good swing on a ball down the middle and the ball went."

Pavlica's blast was a part of a seven-run seventh inning, GCU's second-biggest single-inning run total of the season.

On the hill, Repavich limited Utah Valley to just three hits over his 7.0 innings of work, striking out seven. The left-hander was one shy of tying his career-best strikeouts mark of eight.

"The first couple of starts were rehab starts," Repavich said of easing his way into the 2018 season. "It felt a little different going into those. Once conference came around, I was ready to go."

Things got off to a bit of a shaky start for Repavich, as Utah Valley loaded the bases in the first before the game's first out was recorded. Repavich retired three batters consecutively, however, and limited Utah Valley's damage to just one run. That began a stretch of 12 batters retired consecutively for the senior.

"Minimizing is huge," Repavich said. "Stank has stressed that since the beginning of the fall, so it's something we've really tried to work on. You never know if one of those runs is going to be what ends up biting you in the end."

The Lopes have played error-free defense behind their pitchers in the first two games of the series.

"It's really nice knowing that with two outs that if you get a groundball to the infield, you can start walking back to the dugout because your infield's going to make the play," Repavich said.

GCU quickly responded from the first-inning 1-0 deficit by tying the game in the first. Austin Bull led things off with a double and scored on a Pikai Winchester single.

The 1-1 tie remained until the fifth inning, when Utah Valley reclaimed the lead. But the lead proved to be short-lived thanks to GCU's late-game offensive barrage.

In the sixth, Ian Evans hit an RBI triple to tie the game and scored on a Zach Malis sac fly to take the lead.

Evans came up big in the seventh as well, hitting a two-out, two-run single to turn a narrow 3-2 lead into a more comfortable 5-2 margin. Evans extended his hit streak to 16 games.

GCU will look for its eight consecutive win at GCU Ballpark when the series wraps up on Sunday afternoon. LHP Ethan Evanko (0-1, 6.16) will start against Utah Valley's Kaden Schmitt (3-0, 3.62). First pitch is set for 12 p.m.