Bats cool in loss before big trip

Sunday, March 8

Phoenix, Ariz.

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

9-7

Pacific

8-8

Pacific

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Katie Severns

3/8/2020 3:41:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Box Score Postgame with Coach Wallis

Pacific avoids sweep with 8-0 win at GCU

By: Paul Coro

Grand Canyon saw its hitting surface more than it was all this season when it opened its weekend series against Pacific with its first consecutive double-digit hitting games of the season on Friday and Saturday.

But with one of the program's most challenging road trips ever coming this week, the Lopes could not sustain the offense to build toward games at No. 13 Arkansas and 10-5 Baylor. GCU was shut out 8-0 by Pacific on Sunday at GCU Ballpark.

The Lopes (9-7) only had been shut out once in each of the previous two seasons but was limited to six hits on Sunday, when the last hit came to lead off the sixth inning. GCU hit .389 to get the first two wins of the series.

"In the first two days, we did a nice job of trying to stay up the middle," Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "Today, we lost our way. You have to give him (Pacific starter Hayden Pearce) credit too. He had a really good pitching performance and we knew he was good. But we've got to learn how to be better against good pitching. That's the challenge with big challenges in front of us these next five games."

GCU leaves Monday to play at Arkansas on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Baylor for a three-game series that preludes the WAC play.

GCU enters the trip with its defense intact. The Lopes made one error in the Pacific series and turned their 12th double play on Sunday, ranking them in the national top 25.

Junior starting pitcher Jack Schneider was not at his sharpest but still did enough to give GCU a chance, leaving after six innings and a career-high tying 101 pitches with the Lopes in a 3-0 hole. The southpaw set a career high with eight strikeouts but Pacific pounced on pitches up in the zone in the third inning. The Tigers smashed two doubles for one and adding a two-run, two-out home run by leading hitter Charles Middleton Jr. for the 3-0 lead.

The Lopes should have been challenging more by then. A two-on, one-out threat in the first ended in a double play, when GCU junior left fielder Juan Colato left second and rounded third base on a fly ball caught in left field. A leadoff single in the second inning by sophomore designated hitter C.J. Schauwecker went nowhere.

A questionable call in the third inning, calling Colato out at second when he tried to stretch a single, kept GCU from having runners at second and third with one out. Colato also started and ended a threat in the sixth, when he hit a leadoff double but was thrown out running to third on a ground ball to the shortstop.

"We made some poor baserunning decisions," Stankiewicz said. "We have to be smarter on the bases. We have to learn to take what the game gives us. You can't just run haphazardly. People can play catch. We had some situations where we lost opportunities because we ran ourselves out of possibilities to score runs."

Freshman Jack Slominski made his GCU debut after working back into health and sophomore first baseman Cuba Bess had a breakthrough in his comeback from a hamstring injury. Bess had been limited to three pinch-hit appearances this season but he substituted at first base on Sunday, when he play defense for the first time this season.

Bess, projected to be GCU's top hitter this season, walked and struck out on Sunday.

"That was encouraging," Stankiewicz said. "That's a positive. Hopefully, he wakes up tomorrow with no issues so we can start running him out there."

On the weekend, GCU hit .333 and collected 15 of its 36 extra-base hits on the season and six of its 13 homes runs. Junior center fielder Brock Burton led the Lopes at the plate, going 6 for 10 with two walks. Colato and junior shortstop Channy Ortiz also collected six hits apiece with Colato homering three times.

Stankiewicz does not assume wins but he does expect people to play better, especially in the next five games at Arkansas and Baylor.

"I'm excited to see how we respond against two programs that are in the upper echelon of Division I baseball," Stankiewicz said. "If that's where we want to go, then it's not just time for us to be competitive. It's time for us to get out there and get some wins."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.