GCU rips Utah 11-2, rolls onto WAC

Monday, March 18

Phoenix, Ariz.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

10-10

Utah

7-9

Utah

Grand Canyon

3/18/2019 5:41:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery Photo Gallery

Scalzo gets 17 outs vs. 17 Utes; Quiggle homers twice

By: <a href="http://gculopes.com/index.aspx?path=coro">Paul Coro</a>

Last season, Grand Canyon defended its regular-season WAC baseball championship and won every conference series despite losing five of six games before WAC play began.

So what might a hot Lopes team be able to do when its opens WAC play at GCU Ballpark this weekend?

The Lopes nearly acted out a script for an ideal tune-up in dispatching Pac-12 visitor Utah 11-2 at home Monday for GCU's fourth consecutive victory. Lopes pitchers Jack Schneider and Frankie Scalzo gave ideal performances against a Utes offense that was averaging 6.7 runs and GCU flexed its power to follow a four-homer Saturday with a three-homer Monday.

"It was probably as complete of a game as we've played all year," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "It always starts on the mound."

Pitching provided the most promise. The Lopes (10-10) enjoyed stellar outings from Schneider, who made his second quality start after a redshirt injury season, and Scalzo, who faced the minimum 17 batters in his 5 2/3 relief innings after converting to pitcher last season.

Schneider missed 2018 for surgery on his pitching arm but has returned with two solid starts on pitch-count limits. He threw three shutout innings of one-hit ball against Xavier on Wednesday and allowed one earned run over 3 1/3 innings Monday with 61 pitches.

After Schneider left the game with a 4-2 lead, the Lopes bats and Scalzo turned it into GCU's largest victory margin against a Power 5 program since last season's 12-2 win against Kansas.

While Schneider was working his way back earlier this season, Scalzo was thrust into a starter role and posted a 10.61 earned run average for four starts. In his intended middle relief role for his past two appearances, Scalzo followed three shutout innings against Xavier on Thursday by allowing only two hits over the final 5 2/3 innings Monday. Those hitters were wiped off the basepaths with Scalzo picking one off third base and sophomore catcher David Avitia catching another trying to steal second base.

"Schneids started off great so I just built off him," Scalzo said. "I knew I just had to throw strikes. The defense got me.

"I was just putting too much pressure on myself at the start. Now I trust my stuff. I was thinking too much. Now, I'm pitching."

Scalzo kept the defense ready by throwing his fastball and cut fastball for strikes while mixing in a slider and a change-up. He struck out a batter in each of the last three innings after the top of the sixth ended with a highlight play from second baseman Austin Bull on a hot chopper headed for center field.

"Frankie just comes in and shuts the door and is able to control it," Stankiewicz said. "He's got great tempo and has good rhythm and is able to pound the strike zone. Great job by Frankie. That was huge."

The mound work stood up because GCU followed Saturday's 25-run onslaught with 11 runs on 12 hits Monday.

Junior left-fielder Kona Quiggle homered twice, starting the scoring when he pounded a high slider over the right-field wall on a 1-2 pitch. In the eighth inning, he anticipated a fastball and pulled it for a two-run homer and an 11-2 lead.

In the past four games, Quiggle is 10 for 20 with 11 RBIs and seven extra-base hits (three home runs, three doubles and a triple).

"Right now, my confidence is good and I'm seeing it well," the WAC Hitter of the Week said. "You've got ups and downs. The key is to ride out the ups as long as you can."

Senior center fielder Preston Pavlica homered for the third time in two games with a 410-foot blast to center field for a 9-2 lead in the seventh inning.

"We got that big boy moving offensively and it'll help us as we move into conference," Stankiewicz said.

Pavlica also doubled to open the Lopes' four-run fourth inning that allowed GCU to take a four-game winning streak into a WAC-opening series against California Baptist, starting Friday at 6:30 p.m. at GCU Ballpark.

"We don't really care who we're playing," Quiggle said. "We're just out here having fun. It's a bunch of grinders.

"We had a little stretch where we weren't playing well and clicking on all cylinders but we found it the last couple games and we're ready to go. I think we've hit perfect timing. We're ready to go for conference play."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.