Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, April 5
Las Cruces, N.M. / Presley Askew Field
5 p.m.
Grand Canyon
17-12, 5-2
7
at
4
New Mexico State
20-8, 4-3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Grand Canyon
0
0
0
0
3
1
2
1
0
7
11
3
New Mexico State
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
1
0
4
4
4
Lopes hold Aggies to 4 hits in win
4/5/2019 9:15:00 PM | Baseball
GCU scores in 4 of final 5 innings
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Grand Canyon limited a powerful New Mexico State offense to just four hits in a 7-4 victory on Friday night, extending its win streak to six games.
Junior Kade Mechals and sophomore Frankie Scalzo combined to limit the Aggies to their lowest hit total of the season. Mechals, who picked up his seventh win of the year, pitched five of his six innings scoreless and collected four strikeouts. Scalzo matched Mechals with four strikeouts in three innings of work, allowing just one unearned run en route to his second save.
"Kade mixed up his pitches and had good command of three different pitches," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "That team can hit. When you can limit them — him and Frankie did a nice job of moving the ball in and out. That's a pretty formidable offense. I'm proud of the effort they had tonight. They stayed locked in. It was a nice opening night."
New Mexico State entered the weekend far and away leading the country with its .378 team batting average. GCU pitching held the Aggies to 4-for-31 (.129) hitting on the night, the worst game for New Mexico State since hitting .107 at Mississippi State on March 7, 2018, some 77 games ago.
Windy conditions picked up in the fifth inning, blowing straight out to center. As a result, the Lopes and Aggies traded three-run innings each keyed by a pair of home runs.
GCU's co-leaders in home runs each hit one to center in junior Kona Quiggle and sophomore Cuba Bess. Each recorded their seventh home run of the season.
"Kona had nice at bats and so did Cuba," Stankiewicz said. "Cuba punched out in the first inning. He was frustrated, but he was able to flush it and come back and swing the bat well the rest of the night."
The Aggies responded by putting three runs on the board before an out had been recorded in the bottom of the fifth. After allowing the two home runs, Mechals clamped down to draw a gound ball and two fly balls to get out of the inning.
GCU wasted no time reclaiming a lead, one that it wouldn't relinquish. Senior shortstop Marc Mumper opened the sixth with a single and came into score on a two-out RBI single by Quiggle.
With a 4-3 lead in hand, the Lopes put two more on the board in the seventh. Bess and senior center fielder Preston Pavlica opened the frame with back-to-back singles before a third straight single from sophomore left fielder Brock Burton plated a pair.
"Brock just stayed on it and got enough of the barrel to get a base hit to right field to score a couple of runs," Stankiewicz said. "That was a huge momentum swing. New Mexico State had just answered back."
The Lopes capped off their scoring for the evening when senior second baseman Austin Bull scored on an RBI ground out from senior third baseman Tyler Wyatt.
While the GCU offense was tacking on insurance, Scalzo was holding the Aggies in check.
"Frankie's a momentum guy," Stankiewicz said. "He gets in his rhythm and he's an up-tempo guy. He wants the ball and he wants to go. He was sinking the ball pretty good. If he's commanding the ball down in the zone, usually it's going to work out all right."
The only run New Mexico State scored off of Scalzo came after a ball was misplayed in the outfield following a double.
The heart of the Lopes lineup in Quiggle, Wyatt and Bess each had a pair of hits and combined for five RBIs.
With six consecutive wins, GCU matches its longest win streak of last season when the Lopes won six straight to close out the regular season. GCU has reached double digits in the hits column in each of the six games over the streak.
GCU racked up four stolen bases while holding the Aggies without a stolen base. Notably, sophomore catcher David Avitia put an end to Logan Bottrell's perfect 14-for-14 stolen base mark when he caught the senior stealing to end the third.
The Lopes and Aggies meet again in the middle game of the three-game series on Saturday with first pitch set for 1 p.m. (Phoenix time).
Junior Kade Mechals and sophomore Frankie Scalzo combined to limit the Aggies to their lowest hit total of the season. Mechals, who picked up his seventh win of the year, pitched five of his six innings scoreless and collected four strikeouts. Scalzo matched Mechals with four strikeouts in three innings of work, allowing just one unearned run en route to his second save.
"Kade mixed up his pitches and had good command of three different pitches," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "That team can hit. When you can limit them — him and Frankie did a nice job of moving the ball in and out. That's a pretty formidable offense. I'm proud of the effort they had tonight. They stayed locked in. It was a nice opening night."
New Mexico State entered the weekend far and away leading the country with its .378 team batting average. GCU pitching held the Aggies to 4-for-31 (.129) hitting on the night, the worst game for New Mexico State since hitting .107 at Mississippi State on March 7, 2018, some 77 games ago.
Windy conditions picked up in the fifth inning, blowing straight out to center. As a result, the Lopes and Aggies traded three-run innings each keyed by a pair of home runs.
GCU's co-leaders in home runs each hit one to center in junior Kona Quiggle and sophomore Cuba Bess. Each recorded their seventh home run of the season.
"Kona had nice at bats and so did Cuba," Stankiewicz said. "Cuba punched out in the first inning. He was frustrated, but he was able to flush it and come back and swing the bat well the rest of the night."
The Aggies responded by putting three runs on the board before an out had been recorded in the bottom of the fifth. After allowing the two home runs, Mechals clamped down to draw a gound ball and two fly balls to get out of the inning.
GCU wasted no time reclaiming a lead, one that it wouldn't relinquish. Senior shortstop Marc Mumper opened the sixth with a single and came into score on a two-out RBI single by Quiggle.
With a 4-3 lead in hand, the Lopes put two more on the board in the seventh. Bess and senior center fielder Preston Pavlica opened the frame with back-to-back singles before a third straight single from sophomore left fielder Brock Burton plated a pair.
"Brock just stayed on it and got enough of the barrel to get a base hit to right field to score a couple of runs," Stankiewicz said. "That was a huge momentum swing. New Mexico State had just answered back."
The Lopes capped off their scoring for the evening when senior second baseman Austin Bull scored on an RBI ground out from senior third baseman Tyler Wyatt.
While the GCU offense was tacking on insurance, Scalzo was holding the Aggies in check.
"Frankie's a momentum guy," Stankiewicz said. "He gets in his rhythm and he's an up-tempo guy. He wants the ball and he wants to go. He was sinking the ball pretty good. If he's commanding the ball down in the zone, usually it's going to work out all right."
The only run New Mexico State scored off of Scalzo came after a ball was misplayed in the outfield following a double.
The heart of the Lopes lineup in Quiggle, Wyatt and Bess each had a pair of hits and combined for five RBIs.
With six consecutive wins, GCU matches its longest win streak of last season when the Lopes won six straight to close out the regular season. GCU has reached double digits in the hits column in each of the six games over the streak.
GCU racked up four stolen bases while holding the Aggies without a stolen base. Notably, sophomore catcher David Avitia put an end to Logan Bottrell's perfect 14-for-14 stolen base mark when he caught the senior stealing to end the third.
The Lopes and Aggies meet again in the middle game of the three-game series on Saturday with first pitch set for 1 p.m. (Phoenix time).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Mechals, Kade (7-1)
L: Reyes, Alex (0-1)
S: Scalzo, Frankie (2)
Batting:
HR: Quiggle, Kona 1 ; Bess, Cuba 1
RBI: Quiggle, Kona 3 ; Wyatt, Tyler 1 ; Bess, Cuba 1 ; Burton, Brock 2
SH: Winchester, Pikai 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bull, Austin 1 ; Winchester, Pikai 1 ; Quiggle, Kona 1 ; Bess, Cuba 2 ; Pavlica, Preston 1 ; Mumper, Marc 1
SB: Bull, Austin 1 ; Quiggle, Kona 1 ; Bess, Cuba 1 ; Burton, Brock 1
CS: Wyatt, Tyler 1
HBP: Winchester, Pikai 1 ; Bess, Cuba 1
Batting:
2B: Carranza, Tristen 1
HR: Ehnes, Logan 1 ; Mingus, Eric 1
RBI: Ehnes, Logan 2 ; Mingus, Eric 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Gonzales, Nick 1 ; Peterson, Tristan 1 ; Ehnes, Logan 1 ; Mingus, Eric 1
CS: Bottrell, Logan 1
HBP: Gonzales, Nick 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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