Starting pitchers shine amid Beavers 4-0 visit

Sunday, February 28

Phoenix, Ariz.

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

3-5

Oregon State

7-1

Oregon State

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Garrett Ohrenberg

2/28/2021 5:06:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Similar pattern of late Lopes slide costs GCU in Sunday finale

By: Paul Coro

The adjustment to more four-game series for this college baseball season accentuates starting pitching more than ever. Grand Canyon is well-armed for it.

The Lopes starting pitchers posted a cumulative 0.82 ERA over four games against an elite program, Oregon State, for the most positive takeaway possible amid a Beavers 4-0 sweep.

Sunday's finale at GCU Ballpark continued the series' recurring theme of late collapses. Oregon State rallied from a 2-1 hole after seven innings to win 4-2, capping a series in which the Beavers outscored the Lopes 13-2 in the eighth and ninth innings of four wins.

Following senior Zach Barnes' second stellar outing, junior Pierson Ohl's dominating performance and senior Jack Schneider's four shutout innings, freshman Carter Young followed his quality GCU debut with a determined five-inning, one-run effort Sunday.

With the help of continued strong defense, Young escaped each of the first four innings by stranding a runner in scoring position. That allowed GCU to tie the game 1-1 on senior center fielder Brock Burton's one-out grounder in the third inning and move ahead 2-1 on a sixth-inning, opposite-field RBI single by junior Juan Colato, who was limited to pinch-hitting after a Friday collision.

But the GCU bullpen surrendered eighth- and ninth-inning home runs on the way to a 4-2 loss to Oregon State (7-1).

"We'll get better," Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "We got schooled in the ability to finish a game. To their credit, we were in every one of them. It doesn't matter. We've got to play a full nine innings.

"They did a great job of putting great at bats together late and we did a poor job of making the right pitches late. We have to learn to be the program we want to be. We've got to be the program that knows how to finish games off."

GCU left nine runners on base over the first seven innings, including not scoring with the bases loaded and one out in the first and a runner on second with no outs in the fifth.

Lopes freshmen Elijah Buries, in his second start in left field, and Jacob Wilson, the third baseman, had two hits apiece and GCU senior shortstop Channy Ortiz has reached base every game this season. Ortiz moved into the leadoff spot Saturday with a four-hit game and walked twice Sunday.

"It was a good learning experience to close out the game or stay with them all nine innings," Ortiz said. "You have to take advantage against a good team or it'll come back to get you."

Lopes leadoff batters reached base in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings and did not score in part because they were followed by a strikeout, a first-pitch pop-up and double play, respectively.

GCU hit .323 on the previous weekend with nine runs per game to win three of four games against Missouri.

"With a strong wind, we've got to commit to contact on the ground, line drives and staying up the middle," Stankiewicz said. "We got away from our game plan. It's just a matter of us tightening up our entire game. There's a lot of room for growth.

"Part of our offensive development is being gritty, getting tougher outs, using the whole field and not trying to get big to the pull side. When you make mistakes like that against a club like Oregon State, they're going to expose it and take advantage of it."

The Lopes go from facing an Oregon State club that has the most national championships in the past 15 years (three) to playing an even more storied program, No. 17 Oklahoma State (6-0), in a three-game series next weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

"We're putting ourselves in position to be successful, but we just didn't finish it," Stankiewicz said. "Now, part of our development is we can't just play well for six or seven innings. That's part of our mentality as we grow, understanding that it's a nine-inning game. Relax and keep playing the style of play we were playing early."