Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, April 1
Phoenix, Ariz.
6 p.m.
Grand Canyon
17-10, 9-1
2
vs
0
New Mexico State
10-13, 2-8
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
New Mexico State
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
Grand Canyon
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
X
2
9
1
GCU blanks NMSU with 15-strikeout effort
4/1/2022 9:30:00 PM | Baseball
Hull, Ankeney, Reilly combine for Lopes' 2nd shutout of season
Grand Canyon was backed by an impressive pitching performance, recording its second shutout of the season in a 2-0 series-opening win over New Mexico State on Friday night.
Lopes senior starter Nick Hull spun six scoreless innings, allowing only four hits while striking out seven. Junior left-hander Eli Ankeney had two perfect innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced. Junior closer Vince Reilly struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth for his seventh save.
"Ankeney looked like he was throwing 100 miles per hour," GCU pitching coach Jon Wente said. "He had a breaking ball. He looked strong. Vince every once in awhile, he likes to make it interesting, and it's a good thing tonight he did not make it interesting. When you can strike guys out, it's deflating late in the game and both guys did an unbelievable job."
GCU (17-10, 9-1 WAC) racked up 15 strikeouts against New Mexico State (10-13, 2-8 WAC), one off the Lopes' season best of 16.
It wasn't all smooth sailing, however. Hull faced adversity in the first inning, tossing 30 pitches but working out of a jam to strand the bases loaded. From that point on, only one New Mexico State runner advanced past first base for the remainder of the game.
"He kind of settled into the game and pitched great and that's what Nick's done for us all year," Wente said.
Senior third baseman Juan Colato finished a home run shy of the cycle as the game's only batter with multiple hits.
A first-inning triple by Colato helped the Lopes strike first. He smacked a ball down the right field line and had three bases on his mind from the box, sliding in with the throw coming in off line. Colato promptly came in to score on an RBI single by sophomore shortstop Jacob Wilson.
"As soon as I hit it, I was like, 'Okay I've got to get on three. We have one out right now. I'll push it,' " Colato said. "Thank God I was there in time, so that was good. The coaches are always preaching to take the extra bag if you can. That's what we did today and hopefully it worked."
The Lopes tacked on the game's final run in the fourth. Colato again had his hand in the scoring, following up singles by sophomore catcher Tyler Wilson and sophomore center fielder Cade Verdusco with a single of his own.
"We're just ballplayers," Colato said. "It doesn't matter where we hit. We have a job to do and we try our best to get it done."
Sophomore first baseman Elijah Buries tallied a base hit to extend his career-best hit streak to 16 games. He has posted the longest hit streak by a GCU batter since Ian Evans also hit in 16 straight games in 2018.
The Lopes and Aggies will continue the three-game set at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark on Saturday at 6 p.m.
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Lopes senior starter Nick Hull spun six scoreless innings, allowing only four hits while striking out seven. Junior left-hander Eli Ankeney had two perfect innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced. Junior closer Vince Reilly struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth for his seventh save.
"Ankeney looked like he was throwing 100 miles per hour," GCU pitching coach Jon Wente said. "He had a breaking ball. He looked strong. Vince every once in awhile, he likes to make it interesting, and it's a good thing tonight he did not make it interesting. When you can strike guys out, it's deflating late in the game and both guys did an unbelievable job."
GCU (17-10, 9-1 WAC) racked up 15 strikeouts against New Mexico State (10-13, 2-8 WAC), one off the Lopes' season best of 16.
It wasn't all smooth sailing, however. Hull faced adversity in the first inning, tossing 30 pitches but working out of a jam to strand the bases loaded. From that point on, only one New Mexico State runner advanced past first base for the remainder of the game.
"He kind of settled into the game and pitched great and that's what Nick's done for us all year," Wente said.
Senior third baseman Juan Colato finished a home run shy of the cycle as the game's only batter with multiple hits.
A first-inning triple by Colato helped the Lopes strike first. He smacked a ball down the right field line and had three bases on his mind from the box, sliding in with the throw coming in off line. Colato promptly came in to score on an RBI single by sophomore shortstop Jacob Wilson.
"As soon as I hit it, I was like, 'Okay I've got to get on three. We have one out right now. I'll push it,' " Colato said. "Thank God I was there in time, so that was good. The coaches are always preaching to take the extra bag if you can. That's what we did today and hopefully it worked."
The Lopes tacked on the game's final run in the fourth. Colato again had his hand in the scoring, following up singles by sophomore catcher Tyler Wilson and sophomore center fielder Cade Verdusco with a single of his own.
"We're just ballplayers," Colato said. "It doesn't matter where we hit. We have a job to do and we try our best to get it done."
Sophomore first baseman Elijah Buries tallied a base hit to extend his career-best hit streak to 16 games. He has posted the longest hit streak by a GCU batter since Ian Evans also hit in 16 straight games in 2018.
The Lopes and Aggies will continue the three-game set at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark on Saturday at 6 p.m.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hull, Nick (2-1)
L: Rorick Maltrud (1-2)
S: Reilly, Vince (7)
Batting:
2B: Tommy Tabak 1
Base Running:
SB: Logan Gallina 1
CS: Tommy Tabak 1
PO: Tommy Tabak 1
Batting:
2B: Colato, Juan 1
3B: Colato, Juan 1
RBI: Colato, Juan 1 ; Wilson, Jacob 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Colato, Juan 1 ; Wilson, Tyler 1
PO: Buries, Elijah 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
LHP
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballUTIL
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballINF
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UTIL
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