Coro: Good program aims for greatness

2/17/2021 9:00:00 AM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Experienced pitching leads Lopes into 2021 season of opportunity

By: Paul Coro

It was good for Grand Canyon baseball to claim four WAC regular-season championships. It was good for the Lopes to win a season-opening series against No. 22 Oklahoma State last year. It was good for GCU to go 58-18 in the past three WAC seasons that were played.

It would be great to do more.

Last year's unfinished business becomes this year's agenda for a Lopes team that returns 25 players with experienced pitching and a lineup that features WAC Preseason Player of the Year Juan Colato and promising pop from freshmen.

"We're at a point now where we want to be a great program," GCU 10th-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "We don't want to be a good program. We want to be great. And that's the challenge. They understand that and they want it as well."

After playing its final game on March 11 last season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lopes nearly will have gone a full year between games when they start chasing stature with a tough nonconference schedule and co-conference favorite label.

GCU opens at 3 p.m. Friday against Missouri, which returns seven starters from an 11-5 team. That four-game series at GCU Ballpark will be followed by a Feb. 25-28 visit from 2018 national champion Oregon State before the Lopes head to Oklahoma State, a preseason top-25 team, for a March 5-7 series.

"It's not about competing any more," Stankiewicz said. "It's not about splitting. It's about showing people that we're really, really good. We don't want to be a great mid-major DI program. We want to be a great program. They're working hard and I really believe they want that as well. The fun part is I tell them, 'You're going to get an opportunity to show people. It's what you wanted. Here it is, boys. Opportunity knocks. We've got to be ready to run through the door.' "

The Lopes are equipped to enter a grander stage with a pitching staff that brings back junior right-hander Pierson Ohl and senior left-hander Jack Schneider, who combine for 262 innings of GCU experience. Ohl is a Preseason All-WAC pick after allowing one walk in 28 innings last season with a 2.89 ERA and 17 strikeouts. They will be joined in the rotation by senior right-hander Zach Barnes, who moves his career 3.57 ERA to a starting role.

Facing four-game nonconference and WAC series, the rotation also could include senior right-hander Dawson McCarville and junior right-hander Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis. The Australian was converting to a starter last year when he threw a five-inning outing of two-hit, one-run ball at No. 14 Arkansas, the season's final series.

"There is a veteran presence in the pitching staff that we're going to need with the four-game conference weekends," Stankiewicz said. "That's going to be huge."

The bullpen is loaded with four pitchers who posted an ERA of 2.25 or lower last year. That group is headed by All-WAC Preseason pick Frankie Scalzo, a senior-righthander who did not surrender an earned run last year and limited opponents to .184 hitting.

Cooper-Vassalakis (1.23 ERA last year) will begin the season in relief, where senior right-handers Nick Hull (2.08 ERA last year) and Coen Wynne (2.25 ERA last year) also return for new pitching coach Jon Wente, a former Texas-Arlington assistant.

Paradise Valley Community College transfer Sasha Sneider brings left-handed relief help and graduate transfer Keaton Glover is showing promise after the former outfielder pitched for the first time as a Pacific senior last year. Freshmen Carter Young and Connor Markl figure to deepen the relief core.

"When Coach Wente got here, he said the pitchers fall in line because the older guys do a great job of teaching the younger guys how to approach it and what to do down there," Stankiewicz said. "That makes us feel good that the older guys have taken a leadership role."

It also helps for the Lopes to have one of the nation's best defensive catchers in senior David Avitia, who has 90 career starts. Sophomore Josh Buckley backs him after starting four of 18 games as a freshman.

Juan Colato

Colato led GCU in hitting (.367) last year and is making a defensive adjustment this year from outfield to second base, where he played as an El Salvador youth and projects better for the pros. Colato, honored on the Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-America third team, hit five home runs in 18 games last season for the best home run rate by a GCU player since 1996.

"It's always great when someone recognizes you and thinks greatly of you, but it means very little because I'm just here to compete and grind as a team and let those things take care of themselves," the switch-hitter said.

Colato's middle infield partner will be senior Channy Ortiz, who hit .282 last season as the regular starting shortstop. The first base and right-field jobs remain competitive, but the leader for the other corner infield spot is freshman Jacob Wilson, a Thousand Oaks, California, third baseman whose father, Jack, was a 12-year major-leaguer.

Ryland Zaborowski, a Chandler (Ariz.) Basha High School graduate, is another touted freshman starter. His tremendous power earned him a spot in left field with trusty senior Brock Burton next to him in center field and possibly sophomore Tayler Aguilar in right field. Burton, one of 23 Phoenix-area high school products on the team, hit .258 last season.

"Brock does such a good job, cuts the ball off, gets it in," Stankiewicz said. "When the ball is hit in the air to center, you feel good. If it's supposed to be caught, it's going to be caught. His defense is always so steady."

Burton is part of a group of seniors in the field that also leads after being in the program since their freshman years, i.e. Avitia, outfielder Nate Gawelko and first baseman Dane Stankiewicz.

Roster depth is important in a season when GCU often will play four-game series in three days, including Saturday doubleheaders, and face potential top-25 teams Arizona and Arizona State in mid-week games during the WAC season.

"I'm just stoked," Colato said. "I'm happy to be able to play and have such great support from GCU to put us in this position. We're just ready to roll and ready to compete. We've been grinding for the past eight months waiting for this moment. Everybody is itching to get on the field."