Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
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Coro: Lopes ready for steady climb
2/12/2019 4:56:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro
GCU baseball lineup features big bats like WAC POY Cotton
The Grand Canyon dot has turned bolder on the college baseball map.
The Lopes are the two-time WAC regular-season champions coming off their winningest Division I season and boasting upgrades to 1-year-old GCU Ballpark.
A 24-hour speed bump at last season's WAC Tournament did not stop GCU from continuing its progress to an intended destination. The Lopes are the WAC favorite to reach the NCAA tournament this season but have a veteran group that knows the work to be ready for that May moment comes daily, starting with its four games in the GCU Classic that begins at home Friday night against Wichita State.
"It's a bunch of guys who are buying into the grind of it and are committed to each other and the program," Lopes eighth-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "We have a lot of older guys, especially position players, who feel like this is their last hurrah and want to finish it well."
The Lopes have a storied baseball program that is 25 wins from the program's 2,000th program victory but Stankiewicz and his staff and have taken it to new levels of three Division I conference regular-season titles in the past four years. To capture another one and handle an ambitious schedule, the Lopes will lean on experienced position players that assemble a formidable, versatile lineup with strong defensive potential behind a rebuilt pitching staff full of promise.
GCU lost four drafted players, including ace and San Francisco Giants' No. 80 overall pick Jake Wong, but return six position players, including reigning WAC Player of the Year Quin Cotton. The Lopes return 71 percent of their at bats from last season and get back the big bat of sophomore Cuba Bess, who redshirted last season for injury.
"We've come together a lot sooner than years in the past," said Cotton, a junior outfielder. "We're all working hard toward one goal. We're all pulling from the same end of the rope. Everybody's on the same page.
"It's special. This year, I have the same butterflies that I've had for the last two opening nights. It's going to be fun. I don't want to look too far ahead. I don't want to focus on the end of the season. I want to focus on opening weekend, winning each game and going from there."
Cotton ranked 14th in the nation last season with a .390 batting average and was joined on the Preseason All-WAC Team by senior Pikai Winchester, who hit .355 last season and is slated to move from designated hitter to third base this season.
"It's definitely gone by fast," Winchester said. "I'm trying to make the most of it, if it's practice or especially the games. Just knowing that this could possibly be the last time I play baseball here makes me more anxious."
The lineup returns the senior middle infield of second baseman Austin Bull and shortstop Marc Mumper with first base potentially being handled by Bess, junior Kona Quiggle or another senior, Tyler Wyatt, an All-WAC pick last season for batting .324. Wyatt provides flexibility as an outstanding third baseman or left fielder, where he spent most of last season with Cotton in right and returning senior Preston Pavlica in center.
Those seniors are leaders but they are empowering the underclassmen, which includes 12 freshmen and a sophomore class of nine that features defensively gifted catcher David Avitia.
"They have a word in everything," Wyatt said. "They have just as much of a leadership role as we do. No one is above anyone else. No one is ahead or behind. Everyone is side by side. We're one unit. We're one team. That's how this team is going to go."
Stankiewicz said that chemistry could be the strength of this season's team, which carries the nation's longest conference series winning streak (17 consecutive series) into this season.
The Lopes have a retooled pitching staff after losing last season's rotation of Wong and seniors Jake Repavich and Ethan Evanko, pitchers who accounted for more than two-thirds of the innings pitched.
Junior right-hander Kade Mechals, who played in the 2018 Cape Cod Baseball League with Cotton, figures to be the Friday night starter but GCU could mix its rotation more this season with other strike-throwing, competitive candidates – freshman right-hander Pierson Ohl, sophomore right-hander Frankie Scalzo (a San Jose State transfer) and sophomore right-hander Nick Hull.
Stankiewicz said there could be more spontaneous or matchup-oriented moves, like using Mechals as a mid-week closer and rearranging the rotation to have him start on the ensuing Sunday. Senior right-hander Nick Ohanian, last season's set-up man, could move into a closing role after posting the third-best strikeout rate (14.2 per nine innings) in the nation last season for pitchers with at least 35 innings pitched.
"I don't think we're going to see a bunch of strikeouts," Stankiewicz said. "I think we're going to be a staff that pitches to contact. If that holds true, then we have to be really, really good in the infield. I think we're a pitching staff that's going to pitch down in the zone, get a lot of ground balls."
Stankiewicz booked another strong nonconference schedule that features four Pac-12 opponents, TCU and a visit from Illinois, which the Lopes beat in a road series last season when the Fighting Illini were ranked 25th in the nation.
The aggressive schedule has shown benefits in WAC play, where GCU has gone 39-9 over the past two seasons. Last season, the Lopes were eligible for their first WAC Tournament since the GCU athletic program went to Division I in 2013. The moment admittedly overwhelmed them and GCU was eliminated after a 3-2 loss to Seattle U and an 8-2 loss to Sacramento State.
"We put a little too much pressure on ourselves," Stankiewicz said. "The postseason is the bonus. We didn't look at it as a bonus. We looked at it as 'We got to perform. We got to do well.' It turned into a "we got to" so we put internal pressure on ourselves instead of 'we get to' because we earned our right to be there. Don't stress out. Play good baseball and see where it goes."
A senior core sets the example with a daily urgency to improve and an even-keel approach to big games, whether they are in the regular season or postseason.
"We felt like we'd already earned it when we won the regular-season championship last year," Cotton said. "We overlooked the WAC Tournament a little bit and didn't play that loose. We got too tight. We've just got to be focused on the task at hand and winning the game right in front of us before we think about the NCAA tournament, regionals or anything like that."
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Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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The Lopes are the two-time WAC regular-season champions coming off their winningest Division I season and boasting upgrades to 1-year-old GCU Ballpark.
A 24-hour speed bump at last season's WAC Tournament did not stop GCU from continuing its progress to an intended destination. The Lopes are the WAC favorite to reach the NCAA tournament this season but have a veteran group that knows the work to be ready for that May moment comes daily, starting with its four games in the GCU Classic that begins at home Friday night against Wichita State.
"It's a bunch of guys who are buying into the grind of it and are committed to each other and the program," Lopes eighth-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "We have a lot of older guys, especially position players, who feel like this is their last hurrah and want to finish it well."
The Lopes have a storied baseball program that is 25 wins from the program's 2,000th program victory but Stankiewicz and his staff and have taken it to new levels of three Division I conference regular-season titles in the past four years. To capture another one and handle an ambitious schedule, the Lopes will lean on experienced position players that assemble a formidable, versatile lineup with strong defensive potential behind a rebuilt pitching staff full of promise.
GCU lost four drafted players, including ace and San Francisco Giants' No. 80 overall pick Jake Wong, but return six position players, including reigning WAC Player of the Year Quin Cotton. The Lopes return 71 percent of their at bats from last season and get back the big bat of sophomore Cuba Bess, who redshirted last season for injury.
"We've come together a lot sooner than years in the past," said Cotton, a junior outfielder. "We're all working hard toward one goal. We're all pulling from the same end of the rope. Everybody's on the same page.
"It's special. This year, I have the same butterflies that I've had for the last two opening nights. It's going to be fun. I don't want to look too far ahead. I don't want to focus on the end of the season. I want to focus on opening weekend, winning each game and going from there."
Cotton ranked 14th in the nation last season with a .390 batting average and was joined on the Preseason All-WAC Team by senior Pikai Winchester, who hit .355 last season and is slated to move from designated hitter to third base this season.
"It's definitely gone by fast," Winchester said. "I'm trying to make the most of it, if it's practice or especially the games. Just knowing that this could possibly be the last time I play baseball here makes me more anxious."
The lineup returns the senior middle infield of second baseman Austin Bull and shortstop Marc Mumper with first base potentially being handled by Bess, junior Kona Quiggle or another senior, Tyler Wyatt, an All-WAC pick last season for batting .324. Wyatt provides flexibility as an outstanding third baseman or left fielder, where he spent most of last season with Cotton in right and returning senior Preston Pavlica in center.
Those seniors are leaders but they are empowering the underclassmen, which includes 12 freshmen and a sophomore class of nine that features defensively gifted catcher David Avitia.
"They have a word in everything," Wyatt said. "They have just as much of a leadership role as we do. No one is above anyone else. No one is ahead or behind. Everyone is side by side. We're one unit. We're one team. That's how this team is going to go."
Stankiewicz said that chemistry could be the strength of this season's team, which carries the nation's longest conference series winning streak (17 consecutive series) into this season.
The Lopes have a retooled pitching staff after losing last season's rotation of Wong and seniors Jake Repavich and Ethan Evanko, pitchers who accounted for more than two-thirds of the innings pitched.
Junior right-hander Kade Mechals, who played in the 2018 Cape Cod Baseball League with Cotton, figures to be the Friday night starter but GCU could mix its rotation more this season with other strike-throwing, competitive candidates – freshman right-hander Pierson Ohl, sophomore right-hander Frankie Scalzo (a San Jose State transfer) and sophomore right-hander Nick Hull.
Stankiewicz said there could be more spontaneous or matchup-oriented moves, like using Mechals as a mid-week closer and rearranging the rotation to have him start on the ensuing Sunday. Senior right-hander Nick Ohanian, last season's set-up man, could move into a closing role after posting the third-best strikeout rate (14.2 per nine innings) in the nation last season for pitchers with at least 35 innings pitched.
"I don't think we're going to see a bunch of strikeouts," Stankiewicz said. "I think we're going to be a staff that pitches to contact. If that holds true, then we have to be really, really good in the infield. I think we're a pitching staff that's going to pitch down in the zone, get a lot of ground balls."
Stankiewicz booked another strong nonconference schedule that features four Pac-12 opponents, TCU and a visit from Illinois, which the Lopes beat in a road series last season when the Fighting Illini were ranked 25th in the nation.
The aggressive schedule has shown benefits in WAC play, where GCU has gone 39-9 over the past two seasons. Last season, the Lopes were eligible for their first WAC Tournament since the GCU athletic program went to Division I in 2013. The moment admittedly overwhelmed them and GCU was eliminated after a 3-2 loss to Seattle U and an 8-2 loss to Sacramento State.
"We put a little too much pressure on ourselves," Stankiewicz said. "The postseason is the bonus. We didn't look at it as a bonus. We looked at it as 'We got to perform. We got to do well.' It turned into a "we got to" so we put internal pressure on ourselves instead of 'we get to' because we earned our right to be there. Don't stress out. Play good baseball and see where it goes."
A senior core sets the example with a daily urgency to improve and an even-keel approach to big games, whether they are in the regular season or postseason.
"We felt like we'd already earned it when we won the regular-season championship last year," Cotton said. "We overlooked the WAC Tournament a little bit and didn't play that loose. We got too tight. We've just got to be focused on the task at hand and winning the game right in front of us before we think about the NCAA tournament, regionals or anything like that."
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Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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