Upset loss turns GCU to at-large bid hope

Saturday, May 28

Mesa, Ariz.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

41-19

Abilene Christian

30-28

Grand Canyon

Abilene Christian

5/28/2022 6:10:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

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Lopes' 6 unanswered runs washed away by Wildcats' 7-run 6th

By: Paul Coro

MESA, Ariz. – The Grand Canyon baseball team's mad May ran out of rallies, but it is not out of hope.

The Lopes' WAC Tournament championship repeat bid ended with a 15-8 loss to Abilene Christian on Saturday, sending GCU home from Hohokam Stadium clinging to a program-best resume for the NCAA tournament selection committee to weigh.

No. 25 GCU (41-19) was stunned on successive days by Abilene Christian (30-28), which carried the Friday night walk-off win momentum into a Saturday afternoon 4-0 lead in the first inning and 8-0 bulge through three innings.

The Lopes closed the gap to 8-6, but GCU pitching matched a season high by giving 10 free bases (nine walks, one hit batsman) with five coming consecutively to start the Wildcats' seven-run sixth inning that rebuilt their lead to 15-6. New Mexico State defeated Abilene Christian 7-1 in the championship game on Saturday night to earn the WAC's automatic NCAA tournament berth.

Now, GCU turns attention away from its 2-2 tournament performance and toward Monday's NCAA selection show on ESPN2 at 9 a.m. (Phoenix time). The Lopes' at-large bid hopes lean on a season in which they set their Division I-era record for victories with the following records:

2-2 vs. top-five teams Stanford and Oregon State away from Phoenix
7-4 against elite Power 5 programs
21-6 on the road
25-5 in WAC games, four ahead of any conference team

"Hopefully, the committee will still give us a chance to prove ourselves because we're a much better ball club than we've shown the past two days," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "I know they would love the opportunity and I would love the opportunity to continue to show ourselves better.

"You hope the resume, the quality of wins, the strength of schedule and RPI can stand and hold where those folks selecting think we deserve a chance to get in a regional. Weirder things have happened. We know that. We'll say a prayer and wait and see."

GCU opened the WAC Tournament with its seventh and eight consecutive wins, but Abilene Christian went from a 1-7 stretch with a tourney-opening loss to the Lopes to winning four consecutive games in the double-elimination tournament. Before the two losses to the Wildcats, GCU was No. 39 in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index.

"Coach Stank is always wise," said graduate third baseman Juan Colato, who went 2 for 4 with two RBIs on Saturday to move his season average to .386. "He told us to keep our head high. We don't know what's going to happen in terms of the committee up there in the NCAA to qualify for the regional. You just hope for the best.

"Hopefully, it's not over yet. This team is special. I know we didn't play the last two games the way we wanted to play, but that doesn't take our credit away of what we have accomplished and what we could accomplish if we're able to qualify for a regional."

Abilene Christian scored the most runs off GCU of any conference team since the Lopes rejoined the WAC for the 2014 season. It began with Lopes sophomore Carter Young's shortest start of the season at 1 2/3 innings with five runs, two of which were earned.

Young yielded a walk and single with one out in the first when sophomore shortstop Jacob Wilson committed an error on a potential double-play ball. After another walk, the Wildcats cleared the bases on a double by catcher Tanner Tweedt, who went 3 for 5 with four RBIs, with junior left fielder Adrian Torres' fielding error.

"We didn't play particularly good defense early," Stankiewicz said. "We had a ground ball that we could've turned a double play on and got us out of a jam, but we've got to overcome that stuff. Great competitors and champions overcome obstacles and overcome hurdles. We didn't do a good enough job. And that's on me. I'm the head coach. I've got to train these guys better to handle adversity better."

After nine comeback wins in May, GCU fell back 5-0 in the second inning on a two-out single that ended Young's outing and a three-run third inning for an 8-0 hole before there was an out.

"We told our guys, 'Be ready for a street fight today,' " Abilene Christian head coach Rick McCarty said. "Toughness is a thing that we have to keep in the forefront of our program to beat clubs like them because we're never going to be the most talented, which is fine. But we've got some talented guys that play with passion and toughness."

The Lopes were in the elimination game after leaving the bases loaded three times on Friday in a 6-5 loss to the Wildcats, but they showed fight Saturday when they delivered four consecutive two-out hits in the fourth inning to cut the lead to 8-5. The rally ended in back-to-back doubles by Colato and Wilson.

But after three shutout innings by graduate Kyle Sandstrom, he walked the first batter and got behind 2-0 to the next one to open the bottom of the sixth. Junior closer Vince Reilly entered early and Abilene Christian wound up with five consecutive walks before he was replaced. The Wildcats turned it into a seven-run inning, even with the Lopes throwing out a runner at home.

"It's a tough role," Stankiewicz said. "Closers are used to coming in where they can just let it rip. We're bringing him in a position where he needs to pitch a little bit more. He's an aggressive young man with his fastball. He just couldn't command his fastball."

GCU made its last dent when senior Nick Hansen hit the Lopes' first home run of the tournament in the seventh inning of the fourth game. The two-run blast to left field reduced Abilene Christian's lead to 15-8, but GCU went 0 for 8 after that.

"Frustrating," Stankiewicz said. "The past two nights, we haven't played particularly well. They took advantage of it."