Walk-off home run starts homestand

Tuesday, March 8

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

8-4

CSUN

6-5

Cal State Northridge

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Skyler Coblentz

3/8/2022 10:16:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Torres' 2-run shot hugs right-field line, backs up Omlid quality start

By: Jerob Moon

The Grand Canyon baseball team kicked off a five-game homestand with a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over CSUN on Tuesday night at GCU Ballpark.

After the Matadors (6-5) took the lead in the top of the ninth, GCU junior pinch-hitter Adrian Torres pulled a two-run walk-off home run for his second hit of the season. He sent the 1,962 fans into a frenzy, as the Lopes (8-4) won their sixth consecutive game.

"That at bat, I actually had the bunt sign," Torres said. "But he (threw) to first before the first pitch, and I was thinking, 'Am I going to get a good fastball to hit?' I didn't want to miss it, and gladly I was able to put a good swing on it and the ball stayed fair and we won the ballgame. I've never felt that before. It's my first walk-off home run and it felt awesome."

Before Torres' heroics, the Lopes had fallen behind in the top of the ninth, when CSUN's leadoff batter reached second on a dropped fly ball. That baserunner came around to score on a sacrifice fly to break a 1-1 tie that had held since the fifth inning.

GCU sophomore catcher Tyler Wilson kept it to a one-run deficit when the next Matadors batter attempted a sacrifice bunt to score the runner from third, but the diving tag by Wilson at home wiped the potential run off the board.

Lost in the chaos of the final inning was the strong performance that GCU starting pitcher Hunter Omlid put together for the Lopes. The right-handed junior threw a career-high six innings and allowed only one unearned run. After walking four batters in the first 1 1/3 innings, the Hamilton, Montana, native settled in and allowed just three hits in his last three innings. He finished with four strikeouts and nine ground outs.

"I thought Hunter settled in," Stankiewicz said. "It didn't start out so good with his command early but he exhaled a little and was able to get in a good rhythm and got it going. That was a great job by him the last three innings of work."

After Omlid left, senior Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis and junior Eli Ankeney retired the next six Matadors before junior closer Vince Reilly limited the CSUN threat to one run after he entered the game with runners at the corners and no outs.

"BCV comes in and does a great job with what we need him to do, get outs in those situations," Stankiewicz said. "And Ankeney did what he was supposed to do and so did Vince. So I thought it was a nice performance by our pitching staff, but we need to be better on the defensive end. We gave them some extra bases because we didn't play particularly clean defense, but that's a good lesson for the guys."

The Lopes committed a season-high three errors in the win but were able to strand eight Matadors on the bases. Both of CSUN's runs were unearned.

Lopes sophomores Homer Bush Jr. and Elijah Buries teamed up to score GCU's first run in the third inning after each logged infield singles with Buries' scoring Bush.

GCU sophomore shortstop Jacob Wilson and senior third baseman Juan Colato finished with two hits, including Colato's leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth tht set the stage for Torres' walk-off winner on the first pitch he saw.

The Lopes and Matadors will meet in the series finale at 2 p.m. Wednesday at GCU Ballpark.