Sweep of Seattle makes splash

Saturday, April 20

Phoenix, Ariz.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

20-18, 8-7

Seattle U

8-29, 4-11

Seattle U

Grand Canyon

4/20/2019 2:51:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

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Cotton leadoff triple in 10th sets up Quiggle sac fly winner

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

Grand Canyon senior Preston Pavlica smashed a game-tying double in the bottom of the ninth inning and dived for a run-saving catch in the top of the 10th but his most arduous work came in bottom of the 10th.

After GCU senior Kona Quiggle hit a game-winning sacrifice fly to capitalize on junior Quin Cotton's leadoff triple, Pavlica lugged a Gatorade cooler filled with gallons of water from the home dugout to beyond first base so that his teammates could bathe in a Lopes sweep.

GCU (20-18, 8-7 WAC) became the first WAC team to sweep Seattle U this season with a 5-4 win Saturday at GCU Ballpark despite never leading until the end of the game.

"I think I got everybody on the water but Kona," Pavlica said.

It was appropriate because it took several Lopes to follow up Friday's 14-4 and Saturday's 6-0 wins.

GCU sophomore Jack Schneider set a career high for strikeouts (seven) in a six-inning quality start. Sophomore catcher David Avitia had a season-high three hits. Senior third baseman Tyler Wyatt homered, doubled, walked and scored each time. Senior second baseman Austin Bull made a leaping catch on a liner that might have scored a Redhawks run.

"It was a great job of being gritty and fighting our way through it," Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "It wasn't pretty but nobody said it has to be pretty."

GCU turned a six-game losing streak full of one-run and extra-inning heartbreaks into a sweep of Seattle (8-29, 4-11 WAC) with the Lopes staff posting a 2.00 ERA.

Schneider has posted his longest outings of the season in his past two starts. Strengthened by training room work with athletic trainer Greg Spence and weight room work with performance specialist Mike Henriques, the sophomore left-hander is showing more stamina and confidence in his pitch variety after missing 2018 for Tommy John surgery.

"My fastball command seems to be getting better each outing and that's going to set up my off-speed pitches," Schneider said. "The curve is still a work in progress but it's going to come. My changeup has been up and down but I'm starting to find it.

"It's great to be back out there competing. It's a lot of fun and I love this team."

Seattle scored two-out runs in the fourth and fifth innings for a 3-0 lead. GCU was quiet offensively until Wyatt led off the fifth inning with a solo home run to left field.

The Lopes tied the game in the seventh inning, when senior first baseman Cuba Bess got on base for the third time with a leadoff walk and Wyatt walked in what Stankiewicz said was possibly the best plate appearance of the day. That led to Avitia's two-run double on a full-count pitch.

"I'm just happy for him," Stankiewicz said of Avitia. "I think everyone is. He's been struggling with the bat but came up with that big two-run double.

"We did a good job of putting better at bats together late in the ballgame and committing back to the middle of the diamond."

The Redhawks took a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning but senior reliever Nick Ohanian kept the score there by striking out the side in the ninth inning.

Wyatt drove a one-out double to right-center field but Pavlica came up with two outs and Wyatt still at second.

"Stanky was telling me to sit on curveball and he threw me a good curve up in the zone and got I got the barrel on it," Pavlica said of his double to left-center field that tied the game.

After GCU junior reliever Cole Hoskins shut out Seattle in the 10th to earn his first win, Cotton extended his hitting streak to seven games by ripping a 385-foot triple to the left-center gap. Quiggle hit the first pitch he saw deep enough to center to erase the taste of last week's three-loss sweep with a three-win sweep.

"We all want it," Pavlica said. "We want it bad. We decided to come out this weekend and play really good team baseball. If we do that, we know we'll win a lot of ballgames. We've got a lot of talent.

"The intensity is there. This was a great win."

The bottom third of the lineup hit .407 in the series with 13 RBIs, nine runs, five doubles, two home runs and six walks. With four more doubles Saturday, GCU could be back in the national top 10 for the category.

"We've got to just stay on it," Stankiewicz said. "I think this team is going to get better. I really believe that. As an offense, we've really got a chance to keep getting better. We talk a lot about, to borrow from the (New England) Patriots, just do your job. Whatever job I have at that moment, do your job and do it well, whether it's playing defense, baserunning or a quality at bat. Stay within yourself and commit to being a team player and that's what we did late in the game."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.