Walks cost Lopes in Game 3

Saturday, February 27

Phoenix, Ariz.

2 p.m.

Grand Canyon

3-4

Oregon State

6-1

Oregon State

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Alan Cisneros

2/27/2021 6:10:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Ortiz records 3-hit game in loss

By: Jerob Moon

The Grand Canyon baseball team lost the third game of a four-game set against Oregon State 9-2 at GCU Ballpark on Saturday.

Walks plagued Lopes pitchers, as the team surrendered 13 walks. Senior starting pitcher Jack Schneider walked five batters in four innings, and the GCU relievers combined to walk eight in the final five innings of work.

The GCU hitters had to withstand another strong outing by Oregon State (6-1) on the mound. Channy Ortiz was the bright spot for the Lopes (3-4) finishing the day 4-for-5 with a run scored as Oregon State's starter Jake Pfennigs threw six scoreless innings with four strikeouts.

It was a pitcher's duel into the top of the sixth inning as the Lopes had stranded seven Beaver baserunners. In that inning, GCU senior reliever Keaton Glover had the bases loaded and no outs and nearly escaped the scoring threat by striking out two consecutive batters.

Glover wasn't able to record the final out as a full-count walk and a wild pitch scored a pair runs for the Beavers. A hit by pitch from sophomore pitcher Cal Lambert, who replaced Glover, and an RBI single by OSU's Claunch grew the lead to 5-0.

The Lopes' bats came alive in the eighth with three consecutive singles by Channy Ortiz, Jacob Wilson and Brock Burton to loaded the bases with one out. Batting cleanup, freshman designated hitter Elijah Buries hit a two-RBI single that scored Ortiz and Wilson to narrow the Oregon State lead to 5-2. The Lopes were unable to tack on more runs with the next two batters grounding out.

The Beavers added four runs in the top of the ninth off of four hits including three doubles.

GCU and Oregon State meet for the fourth and final game of the series on Sunday at noon.