Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Saturday, May 11
Phoenix, Ariz.
6 p.m.
Grand Canyon
30-20, 16-7
5
vs
4
Northern Colorado
10-33, 6-17
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
R
H
E
Northern Colorado
0
0
0
0
0
3
0
1
0
0
4
9
2
Grand Canyon
3
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
5
9
1
Burton's walk-off wins 11th straight
5/11/2019 10:00:00 PM | Baseball
Sophomore ends victory with hit for 2nd time, continues WAC streak
With a walk-off hit already under his belt at GCU Ballpark this season, the Lopes felt confident with sophomore Brock Burton stepping to the plate in a 10th-inning tie game on Saturday night.
Burton delivered again with a double to right field that rolled to the wall, scoring a speedy Preston Pavlica from first base and giving the Lopes a 5-4 win that clinched the series against Northern Colorado.
"It's just fun to walk it off like that," said Burton, who was in the designated hitter role on Saturday. "Pav getting on first base and running around, he's got the wheels. It's definitely fun. Just trying to take advantage of every opportunity that I have."
The Lopes (30-20, 16-7 WAC) clinched their fourth consecutive conference series and ran their WAC win streak to 11 games. They remain a game behind New Mexico State in the WAC race and in a three-way tie for second place with four conference games remaining.
"He did a good job," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said of Burton. "He put some good at bats together late. Wonderful job there on an off-speed pitch, he just caught it out front and stayed inside it. He got it down the line and you've got Pavlica at first base. You put the ball in play and he's got a chance to score a run."
To get as far as the 10th inning, GCU relied on its bullpen in some key moments. Junior Cole Hoskins entered in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out before promptly retiring both batters via strikeout. Sophomore Coen Wynne worked his way into trouble before drawing a pop up to strand the bases loaded. Sophomore Zach Barnes used an efficient eight pitches to set the side down in the top of the 10th.
"Hats off to our bullpen," Stankiewicz said. "That's huge. That kind of pushed the momentum back to our side a little bit. Hats off to the job those guys did to keep it even. They gave us a chance late."
After homering in the fourth inning to give GCU a 4-0 lead, Pavlica was hit by a pitch to open the 10th and used his speed to score on Burton's game-winning double.
The Lopes opened things up with a three-run first inning. Austin Bull, Quin Cotton and Kona Quiggle strung together consecutive singles to load the bases. GCU took advantage of miscues by Northern Colorado (10-33, 6-17 WAC) to score two on a fumbled fielder's choice and one more on a wild pitch.
GCU could not add to its 4-0 lead, however, going scoreless from the fourth inning until the 10th.
"We got stagnant with the offense there after the third," Stankiewicz said. "We have to create pressure. We've got to get to first. Everybody just tried to start getting big. You're thinking that (junior pitcher Kade) Mechals is on the mound – that's not fair to him. You have to keep pounding out at bats, but we just kind of shut down."
Mechals struck out eight batters in his 5 2/3 innings of work. He was tagged with three runs but only one earned run after a few defensive miscues in a Bears' three-run sixth inning. The right-hander exited in line for what would have been his nation-leading 11th victory until a game-tying home run by the Bears in the eighth cleared the record.
"We learned a tough lesson, and a lot of times you learn a tough lesson in a loss," Stankiewicz said. "Today, we learned a tough lesson but we still got the win."
The Lopes hit the 30-win plateau for the second consecutive season with five regular-season games remaining.
The home schedule wraps on Sunday with GCU honoring its eight seniors, a longstanding core that has combined to play 928 games in a GCU uniform. The program will honor four-year mainstays Bull, Tyler Wyatt, Pavlica, Marc Mumper and Josh Andrews. Two-year Lopes Pikai Winchester, Dalton Chapman and Nick Ohanian round out the honorees.
"It's a senior-oriented team," Stankiewicz said. "It'll be important to them to come out and play well tomorrow. We'll honor those guys and they deserve it, they've had great careers here. I'm proud of what they've accomplished. All of them graduated which is exciting. We just enjoy that moment with them and their moms. We send them off with a win at home, that's the idea."
First pitch in the finale of a 30-game home schedule is set for noon with GCU chasing its fourth consecutive weekend sweep.
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Burton delivered again with a double to right field that rolled to the wall, scoring a speedy Preston Pavlica from first base and giving the Lopes a 5-4 win that clinched the series against Northern Colorado.
"It's just fun to walk it off like that," said Burton, who was in the designated hitter role on Saturday. "Pav getting on first base and running around, he's got the wheels. It's definitely fun. Just trying to take advantage of every opportunity that I have."
The Lopes (30-20, 16-7 WAC) clinched their fourth consecutive conference series and ran their WAC win streak to 11 games. They remain a game behind New Mexico State in the WAC race and in a three-way tie for second place with four conference games remaining.
"He did a good job," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said of Burton. "He put some good at bats together late. Wonderful job there on an off-speed pitch, he just caught it out front and stayed inside it. He got it down the line and you've got Pavlica at first base. You put the ball in play and he's got a chance to score a run."
To get as far as the 10th inning, GCU relied on its bullpen in some key moments. Junior Cole Hoskins entered in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out before promptly retiring both batters via strikeout. Sophomore Coen Wynne worked his way into trouble before drawing a pop up to strand the bases loaded. Sophomore Zach Barnes used an efficient eight pitches to set the side down in the top of the 10th.
"Hats off to our bullpen," Stankiewicz said. "That's huge. That kind of pushed the momentum back to our side a little bit. Hats off to the job those guys did to keep it even. They gave us a chance late."
After homering in the fourth inning to give GCU a 4-0 lead, Pavlica was hit by a pitch to open the 10th and used his speed to score on Burton's game-winning double.
The Lopes opened things up with a three-run first inning. Austin Bull, Quin Cotton and Kona Quiggle strung together consecutive singles to load the bases. GCU took advantage of miscues by Northern Colorado (10-33, 6-17 WAC) to score two on a fumbled fielder's choice and one more on a wild pitch.
GCU could not add to its 4-0 lead, however, going scoreless from the fourth inning until the 10th.
"We got stagnant with the offense there after the third," Stankiewicz said. "We have to create pressure. We've got to get to first. Everybody just tried to start getting big. You're thinking that (junior pitcher Kade) Mechals is on the mound – that's not fair to him. You have to keep pounding out at bats, but we just kind of shut down."
Mechals struck out eight batters in his 5 2/3 innings of work. He was tagged with three runs but only one earned run after a few defensive miscues in a Bears' three-run sixth inning. The right-hander exited in line for what would have been his nation-leading 11th victory until a game-tying home run by the Bears in the eighth cleared the record.
"We learned a tough lesson, and a lot of times you learn a tough lesson in a loss," Stankiewicz said. "Today, we learned a tough lesson but we still got the win."
The Lopes hit the 30-win plateau for the second consecutive season with five regular-season games remaining.
The home schedule wraps on Sunday with GCU honoring its eight seniors, a longstanding core that has combined to play 928 games in a GCU uniform. The program will honor four-year mainstays Bull, Tyler Wyatt, Pavlica, Marc Mumper and Josh Andrews. Two-year Lopes Pikai Winchester, Dalton Chapman and Nick Ohanian round out the honorees.
"It's a senior-oriented team," Stankiewicz said. "It'll be important to them to come out and play well tomorrow. We'll honor those guys and they deserve it, they've had great careers here. I'm proud of what they've accomplished. All of them graduated which is exciting. We just enjoy that moment with them and their moms. We send them off with a win at home, that's the idea."
First pitch in the finale of a 30-game home schedule is set for noon with GCU chasing its fourth consecutive weekend sweep.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Barnes, Zach (2-1)
L: Billy MORELAND (1-3)
Batting:
2B: Tyler YAMAGUCHI 1 ; Matt BURKART 1 ; Matt ZOBA 1
HR: Adrain, VELA 1
RBI: Adrain, VELA 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Jack PAULEY 1 ; Sam LEACH 1 ; Adrain, VELA 2
SB: Adrain, VELA 1
CS: Matt ZOBA 1
Batting:
2B: Bess, Cuba 1 ; Burton, Brock 1
HR: Pavlica, Preston 1
RBI: Wyatt, Tyler 1 ; Pavlica, Preston 1 ; Burton, Brock 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bull, Austin 1 ; Cotton, Quin 1 ; Quiggle, Kona 1 ; Pavlica, Preston 2
SB: Weaver, Jonny 1 ; Cotton, Quin 1
HBP: Bull, Austin 1 ; Pavlica, Preston 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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RHP
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RHP
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RHP
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RHP
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