Cotton, Mechals lead win at USC

Friday, March 1

Los Angeles, Calif. / Dedeaux Field

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

4-5

USC

3-5

Grand Canyon

USC

Photo by: David Cohen

3/1/2019 10:10:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Lopes open series with 4-2 victory

By: Josh Hauser

LOS ANGELES — Kade Mechals spun six scoreless innings and Quin Cotton added a clutch three-run double to pave the way for Grand Canyon's 4-2 series-opening win at USC on Friday night.

Mechals, a junior, improved to 3-0 with another shutdown outing. The right-hander now has allowed one run over 18 1/3 innings with an ERA of 0.49.

"He can keep us in a game against anybody in the country," said Cotton, a fellow junior. "He's going to put zeros up on the board. As an offense, we know we have to get him a couple of runs and we're going to win the game."

GCU's mission to get Mechals his run support was not instant but finally came late in his outing.

Junior outfielder Kona Quiggle led off the sixth inning with a single. Back-to-back strikeouts proved to be a speed bump rather than a dead end. After Quiggle advanced into scoring position when senior second baseman Austin Bull was hit by a pitch, sophomore catcher David Avitia hit a sharp ground ball through the left side to score GCU's first run.

Freshman Jake Jarvis drew a walk on a full count in his pinch-hit appearance, loading the bases for Cotton. The Lopes right fielder cleared the bases on a double down the right-field line to put GCU in front 4-0 in what proved to be a game-deciding hit. Cotton was thrown out attempting to advance to third, but the necessary damage was done.

"Jarvis had a great at bat right in front of me to load the bases," Cotton said. "With two outs, I was ready to hunt a fastball. I just put it down the line."

USC cut the deficit in half on a two-run bloop single in the seventh. But sophomore Coen Wynne and senior Nick Ohanian provided 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to keep the GCU lead intact. Ohanian picked up his second save.

"It's a fun game," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "It's exciting when you watch the guys come together and put performances like that together and play so well as a team. To beat a good arm like that on a Friday night, it's a pretty big deal."

The "good arm" was Trojans ace Kyle Hurt, a sophomore who threw 7 2/3 innings of a combined no-hitter against Utah last year. The Lopes got to Hurt for seven hits and four runs over six innings while drawing four walks.

The Lopes ended a seven-game skid against Pac-12 teams and defeated USC for the first time since 1982.

GCU's offense began the game firing on all cylinders but was left searching for a big hit. The Lopes left six runners on base through three innings, including a bases-loaded situation in the second. GCU started the game 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position before Avitia came through with his sixth-inning single to ignite the offense.

"Stay on the mission. Stay on the course," Stankiewicz said of coming up empty early. "That's baseball. That was frustrating. We had some opportunities and we didn't take advantage of them. But guys didn't panic. They just stayed on it and kept trying to fight. Sometimes it doesn't happen the way you want it to early, but Kade stepped up big and did a great job of holding them down."

USC never posed much of a scoring threat to Mechals, who only allowed two Trojans to reach second base. Mechals only grew stronger as he approached the end of his 95-pitch outing, retiring the final eight batters he faced.

"He's competitive," Stankiewicz said. "It's nice to know that the opponent is going to have to put really good at bats together because he's going to compete and figure out ways to make pitches. He did a nice job of holding down the fort for us until we could figure something out offensively."

The Lopes moved to 3-0 in Friday night contest, in which they have outhit opponents 30-14.

Due to rain in the forecast, Saturday's first pitch has been pushed back to 6 p.m. (Phoenix time).