Champs head to Mesa to defend WAC tourney title

May 25-28 \| WAC Tournament \| Hohokam Stadium \| Mesa, Ariz.

	#25 GRAND CANYON LOPES (39-17, 25-5 WAC)	at	WAC TOURNAMENT

PITCHING PROBABLES

Wednesday, May 25 • First round vs. Abilene Christian (26-27, 14-16 WAC) • 7 p.m.
Live Stats • Watch • Tickets
RHP Daniel Avitia (7-4, 3.52 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Morgan (6-3, 4.87 ERA)

Thursday, May 26 • Second round vs. Lamar or Seattle U • noon or 7 p.m.
Watch
TBD vs. TBD

Friday and Saturday, May 27-28 • opponents and game times TBD
Bracket

Atop each day's practice schedule posted in the Tim Salmon Clubhouse, Grand Canyon baseball players have seen the same quote listed for months.

It was a motivator throughout the grind of a season. It can come to fruition with the start of the postseason.

GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz posted a quote from Steph Curry, who followed his 2021 NBA All-Star Game by saying, "I have a lot to accomplish. I don't have anything to prove."

As the Lopes start the WAC Tournament with a 7 p.m. Wednesday first-round game against Abilene Christian, they are proven commodities as the No. 25 team in the nation and the tournament's defending champions with five WAC regular-season titles since 2015.

Winning this week's tournament at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa would be an accomplishment, a means to its desired accomplishment of returning to a NCAA regional to reverse last season's 0-2 visit to Tucson.

"It was different last year because we hadn't won a WAC Tournament, so we had a lot to prove," said GCU senior third baseman Jonny Weaver, who is hitting .300 for a second consecutive season. "Obviously, everyone knows who we are now. National ranking and all that. We still have so much to accomplish. We're getting hot going into the right part of the season."

GCU (39-17) matched last season's Division I-era record for wins, tied its 2017 mark for best WAC winning percentage (.833, 25-5) and should pretend it is playing on the road this week after having its most road wins ever with a 21-6 away mark.

With the No. 25 national ranking and a No. 44 spot in the NCAA Rating Percentage Index, many pundits figure the Lopes are well positioned for an at-large bid regardless of WAC Tournament outcome.

"We don't want to lose sight of what we're trying to do here," said GCU sophomore first baseman Tyler Wilson, an All-WAC first-team pick who delivered the winning hit in last year's WAC Tournament championship. "We want to keep working and getting better. We just talked about that there's talk we might get an at-large bid, but we want to win the WAC. It's the easiest way to do it. Win it all and don't leave them second-guessing."

The Lopes entered the WAC Tournament after sweeping Seattle U and New Mexico State the past two weekends and winning every conference series this year.

The tournament bracket for an expanded conference will make winning the tournament more difficult. GCU does not get the first-round bye that it did as a No. 1 seed last year and could win 7 p.m. games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and still have a single-game championship at 6 p.m. Saturday, even if the team from the opposite bracket suffered a loss in what is a double-elimination tourney until the title game.

None of that minutiae can take away from senior Juan Colato's joy. Colato has been a GCU star for three seasons, but the 2020 season ended early because of the pandemic and an injured Colato could only hop in a boot to the Lopes' WAC Tournament championship celebration last year.

"We're in a great spot mentally," said Colato, who is hitting a team-high and career-high .383. "The team spirit is very high right now. We're in a great spot to go after it and do what we do.

"Over the years, you try to keep it simple with the same game and same rules. Try not to do too much. We have plenty of talent here, so there's nothing to worry about. If we keep playing the game the way we do, we should be fine."

The Lopes are well situated for a long tournament with four successful starting pitchers in WAC Pitcher of the Year and sophomore left-hander Daniel Avitia (7-4, 3.52 ERA), graduate right-hander Nick Hull (7-1, 4.10 ERA), sophomore left-hander Connor Markl (6-3, 5.18 ERA) and sophomore right-hander Carter Young (3-3, 5.24 ERA).

Behind them, GCU has a bullpen that deepened during the season with graduate left-hander Kyle Sandstrom (1.74 ERA), senior right-hander Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis (4.70 ERA), sophomore left-hander Eli Ankeney (2.70 ERA) and junior right-handed closer Vince Reilly (GCU-record 13 saves, 3.62 ERA).

The Lopes pitchers will open the tournament having to contend with an Abilene Christian team that set a program high with 79 home runs this season and ranks 36th nationally for slugging percentage (.490). Wildcats junior center fielder Grayson Tatrow hit 17 of those homers and collected 65 RBIs, the 35th-best total in the nation.

Abilene Christian plays stellar defense (No. 20 in the nation) and less of it because its pitchers strike out 10.4 batters per game (No. 19 in the nation). They will have to face a lineup featuring four hitters on the All-WAC first team, including Colato, Tyler Wilson, WAC home run leader and junior right fielder Tayler Aguilar and Golden Spikes Award semifinalist and sophomore shortstop Jacob Wilson.

This is only the Wildcats' second trip out of Texas this season and it comes after they lost six of their last seven games.

"We got a taste of it last year and went to regionals, but we obviously didn't leave how we wanted," Tyler Wilson said. "This year, we're more motivated. We know we can do it."

May 25-28 | WAC Tournament | Hohokam Stadium | Mesa, Ariz.

PITCHING PROBABLES

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Players Mentioned

Tayler Aguilar

Eli Ankeney

Daniel Avitia

Juan Colato

Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis

Nick Hull

Connor Markl

Vince Reilly

Kyle Sandstrom

Jonny Weaver

Jacob Wilson

Tyler Wilson

Carter Young

Grand Canyon University Athletics