GCU bedevils ASU for 7-5 road win

Tuesday, March 22

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

14-8

Arizona State

9-13

Grand Canyon

Arizona State

3/22/2022 11:29:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Wilson stays hot with double, home run; Lopes beat Devils again

By: Paul Coro

The Grand Canyon baseball team entered Arizona State's Phoenix Municipal Stadium with a different air about it than a year ago and left with a flipped result that builds on the storm brewing out of the west Phoenix.

One month after rolling now-No. 11 Arizona 19-3 and six days after rocking now-No. 6 Oregon State 13-7, GCU hit the right notes for a 7-5 win at ASU that sounded sweet to the purple faction among 5,552 fans.

The program progression of a team coming off an NCAA tournament appearance continues to show in the Lopes, who have won five consecutive games to move to 14-8 and entered this week at No. 22 in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index.

GCU showed its heightened confidence by taking a 3-0 lead after the game's first six batters and carried that swagger throughout a game that it never trailed, including when ASU's Ethan Long homered in the eighth inning and chirped at the Lopes on his way to home plate. That was one of two hits by the Sun Devils (9-13) over the final 4 2/3 innings.

"It got a little feisty there and our team was riled up and ready to go," said Jacob Wilson, GCU's sizzling sophomore shortstop. "We came out with the W, which is better than any word we could say to them."

A day off did not cool Wilson's bat after garnering two national player of the week awards. Wilson doubled off the top of the left-center wall to open the first-inning scoring and smashed a slider into a moonshot, two-run home run that broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning.

In the past six games, Wilson is 20 for 28 (.714) with 16 RBIs, five double and four home runs.

"What a great accomplishment," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said of the honors. "That's a neat deal to get national attention. He's not a guy who you worry, 'Oh, man, he's going to change something.' He knows who he is. He tries to hit line drives and, every once in a while, he gets inside one and gets a home run. He's got a slow heartbeat at the plate."

ASU started its Friday night pitcher, Adam Tulloch, but the first four Lopes reached base, including Wilson jumping on a 2-2 fastball for the double that created a 1-0 lead. Sophomore first baseman Elijah Buries followed with a RBI bloop single and junior right fielder Tayler Aguilar made the lead 3-0 with a sacrifice fly.

The Sun Devils answered with two first-inning runs, but GCU sophomore starting pitcher Carter Young then settled in and retired 11 consecutive batters before the Lopes only error of the game started ASU's two-run fifth inning that tied the score at 4-4.

The Lopes had taken a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning, when sophomore center fielder Homer Bush Jr. doubled to right center field and scored on one of senior third baseman Juan Colato's three hits.

The ASU fifth-inning threat was quelled at the 4-4 tie. GCU senior right-hander Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis, cleared from nine days of concussion protocol earlier Tuesday, inherited runners at second and third with one out and struck out consecutive batters.

"That was big work for him," Stankiewicz said of the Australian reliever. "I'm as encouraged about that as anything else. That's what we need out of him for sure, to come into those spots in what we think is a tough part of the lineup and get big outs."

Cooper-Vassalakis stranded two runners in scoring position by shaking off a 3-0 count for the second strikeout with emotion to match the moment.

"That was 100% adrenalin," said Cooper-Vassalakis, who struck out four consecutive batters and retired the other batter on a pop-up. "I don't usually react with emotion like that, but it just came out.

"I don't know what the velo (velocity) was, but it felt good enough. I just tried to rip everything hard."

Wilson piled onto the momentum with his eighth home of the season for a 6-4 lead in the top of the sixth inning. Buries' bunt single on the next pitch set up another run, when an error scored Buries for a 7-4 GCU lead.

"We punched out 11 times; they punched out three times," ASU head coach Willie Bloomquist said. "We walked seven hitters; they walked two hitters. We gave up free bases; they didn't. They were ready to hit; we weren't from a general standpoint. To me, a lot of it is a mindset."

The Lopes, now 3-1 vs. Pac-12 teams this season, finished their second consecutive win against the Sun Devils with junior closer Vince Reilly notching his fourth save.

"This is a storied program and we're trying to build our program, so to come here and compete like we did tonight is something to be proud of," Stankiewicz said.

"They're all steps in the progression of our program. Getting our guys to feel like they can play against anybody, any conference, anywhere. They're starting to feel like we can do it and the guys are doing it. They're excited to play baseball and they're playing good baseball."