Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, March 29
Orem, Utah / UCCU Ballpark
5 p.m.
Grand Canyon
13-12, 2-2
9
at
4
Utah Valley
5-20, 2-2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Grand Canyon
0
1
0
0
1
2
0
3
2
9
15
1
Utah Valley
2
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
4
11
0
Photo by: Clark Clifford
15-hit effort sparks GCU win
3/29/2019 9:15:00 PM | Baseball
Quiggle leads hot Lopes offense with 4 hits
OREM, Utah — Grand Canyon faced an early 2-0 deficit but scored nine of the game's final 11 runs to claim the series opener from Utah Valley on Friday night.
The Lopes (13-12, 2-2 WAC) finished with 15 hits, their second-highest tally of the season. Seven of them were of the extra-base variety, marking the most in a conference game since also recording seven at New Mexico State on April 28, 2017.
The host Wolverines (5-20, 2-2 WAC) twice had a two-run lead, initally at 2-0 in the first and again at 3-1 through three innings. But the Lopes scored multiple runs in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings to recover and build a lead.
"Yeah they scored a couple early, but what I like to see is no panic from the guys," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "Just stay the course. It's encouraging to be able to put some nice at bats together late. That's important: win the later innings. That's what we were able to do is gain some separation late."
Senior shortstop Marc Mumper had an RBI double in the fifth to pull GCU within a run. An inning later, senior third baseman Tyler Wyatt gave the Lopes their first lead of the night with a two-run home run down the left field line. For Wyatt, it was his second home run of the season with both putting the Lopes in front on the scoreboard.
After Wyatt gave GCU the 4-3 lead, the Lopes added five late insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings, highlighted by a two-run blast to left-center for senior center fielder Preston Pavlica.
Hits came from every part of the lineup with six GCU batters logging multi-hit efforts. Junior Kona Quiggle had four hits, a career-high for the left fielder and most in a game by a GCU batter this season. Two of Quiggle's hits were doubles, and he led the Lopes with three runs scored. Junior right fielder Quin Cotton had three hits, and Mumper had a double and a triple.
"It was encouraging to see Quin start to get back up the middle of the diamond again," Stankiewicz said. "Kona had a great night, Pav, Mump – those are key components to our offense. If we get those guys moving in the right direction, we feel like we have a lineup that can keep coming at you."
Junior Kade Mechals allowed the three Utah Valley runs through three innings, but the right-hander clamped down to finish his outing with three scoreless frames. Mechals improved to 6-1 on the year.
"That's part of his development," Stankiewicz said. "He gave up the two in Inning 1. He's got a slow heartbeat, he doesn't get rattled, and that's why he's a good starter. He understands his role, that his job is to go back out there and give us quality innings. That's who he is."
The Lopes needed just one reliever to close out the ballgame thanks to three innings of one-run baseball by junior Cole Hoskins. The righty picked up his second save of the year by retiring the first six batters he faced and limiting the damage to a single run in the ninth after the first three Wolverines picked up hits.
The series continues from UCCU Ballpark on Saturday afternoon with a 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) first pitch.
The Lopes (13-12, 2-2 WAC) finished with 15 hits, their second-highest tally of the season. Seven of them were of the extra-base variety, marking the most in a conference game since also recording seven at New Mexico State on April 28, 2017.
The host Wolverines (5-20, 2-2 WAC) twice had a two-run lead, initally at 2-0 in the first and again at 3-1 through three innings. But the Lopes scored multiple runs in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings to recover and build a lead.
"Yeah they scored a couple early, but what I like to see is no panic from the guys," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "Just stay the course. It's encouraging to be able to put some nice at bats together late. That's important: win the later innings. That's what we were able to do is gain some separation late."
Senior shortstop Marc Mumper had an RBI double in the fifth to pull GCU within a run. An inning later, senior third baseman Tyler Wyatt gave the Lopes their first lead of the night with a two-run home run down the left field line. For Wyatt, it was his second home run of the season with both putting the Lopes in front on the scoreboard.
After Wyatt gave GCU the 4-3 lead, the Lopes added five late insurance runs in the eighth and ninth innings, highlighted by a two-run blast to left-center for senior center fielder Preston Pavlica.
Hits came from every part of the lineup with six GCU batters logging multi-hit efforts. Junior Kona Quiggle had four hits, a career-high for the left fielder and most in a game by a GCU batter this season. Two of Quiggle's hits were doubles, and he led the Lopes with three runs scored. Junior right fielder Quin Cotton had three hits, and Mumper had a double and a triple.
"It was encouraging to see Quin start to get back up the middle of the diamond again," Stankiewicz said. "Kona had a great night, Pav, Mump – those are key components to our offense. If we get those guys moving in the right direction, we feel like we have a lineup that can keep coming at you."
Junior Kade Mechals allowed the three Utah Valley runs through three innings, but the right-hander clamped down to finish his outing with three scoreless frames. Mechals improved to 6-1 on the year.
"That's part of his development," Stankiewicz said. "He gave up the two in Inning 1. He's got a slow heartbeat, he doesn't get rattled, and that's why he's a good starter. He understands his role, that his job is to go back out there and give us quality innings. That's who he is."
The Lopes needed just one reliever to close out the ballgame thanks to three innings of one-run baseball by junior Cole Hoskins. The righty picked up his second save of the year by retiring the first six batters he faced and limiting the damage to a single run in the ninth after the first three Wolverines picked up hits.
The series continues from UCCU Ballpark on Saturday afternoon with a 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) first pitch.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Mechals, Kade (6-1)
L: Carr, Jake (0-7)
S: Hoskins, Cole (2)
Batting:
2B: Quiggle, Kona 2 ; Mumper, Marc 1
3B: Pavlica, Preston 1 ; Mumper, Marc 1
HR: Wyatt, Tyler 1 ; Pavlica, Preston 1
RBI: Cotton, Quin 1 ; Quiggle, Kona 1 ; Wyatt, Tyler 2 ; Bess, Cuba 1 ; Pavlica, Preston 2 ; Mumper, Marc 1
SH: Bull, Austin 1
SF: Bess, Cuba 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bull, Austin 1 ; Cotton, Quin 1 ; Quiggle, Kona 3 ; Wyatt, Tyler 1 ; Pavlica, Preston 2 ; Mumper, Marc 1
SB: Bull, Austin 1 ; Wyatt, Tyler 1
CS: Cotton, Quin 1
HBP: Avitia, David 1
PO: Cotton, Quin 1
Batting:
2B: Beltran, Michael 1 ; Marco, Alexander 1 ; Plecas, Jake 1
RBI: Hall, Kody 1 ; Marco, Alexander 2 ; Sims, Drew 1
SH: Howell, Trevor 1
SF: Sims, Drew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hall, Kody 1 ; Beltran, Michael 1 ; Eastburn, Ryan 1 ; Plecas, Jake 1
CS: Poulsen, Kade 1
HBP: Poulsen, Kade 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
3
H
4
RBI
1
AB
5
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
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RHP
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RHP
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INF
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OF
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