Motivation builds for return to regionals

Friday, June 3 \| NCAA regional \| O'Brate Stadium \| Stillwater, Okla.

	GRAND CANYON LOPES (41-19)	vs.	ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS (38-18)

PITCHING PROBABLES

Friday, June 3 • 10 a.m. (Phoenix time)
Watch • Live Stats

RHP Daniel Avitia (8-4, 3.59) vs. RHP Connor Noland (5-5, 4.07)

STILLWATER, Okla. – The Grand Canyon baseball team walked into O'Brate Stadium on Thursday under a 2,000-square foot video board welcoming the Lopes to their "SECOND" appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Nothing about the environment, the opponents or the stakes are new to GCU after playing at Oklahoma State last season, playing against Friday opponent Arkansas two years ago and playing in its first NCAA Division I regional last year in Tucson.

The only thing new about GCU is the motivation, which doubled when the team that ended the regular season ranked No. 25 in the nation but did not win the WAC Tournament. The Lopes are here to win and move on from last weekend's 2-2 showing and last year's 0-2 regional showing.

"When you get in this type of environment and you've been there before, I do hope that it slows down our heart rate a little bit," GCU head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "We've been here. We've done this. We've competed against the best in the country all year. I do think that getting to the regional last year was a huge step in our program. We really believe that the design is to continue to build."

The Lopes (41-19) went 5-3 this season against teams in the top 25, where Arkansas (38-18) resided in the top five most of the season but is on a four-game losing streak that cost it from hosting a fourth consecutive regional.

GCU, the Stillwater Regional's No. 3 seed, will play Arkansas, the No. 2 seed, at 10 a.m. (Phoenix time) on Friday, followed by No. 1 seed Oklahoma State facing No. 4 seed Missouri State with winners and losers matched up Saturday in the double-elimination format.

"I'm just enjoying it and trying to put in a good performance and represent this program well," said Lopes senior Juan Colato, the team's leading hitter at .384. "We're playing great ball clubs, but we're also very good. We don't fear nobody. We're ready to play our brand of baseball and have fun doing it."

Offense is not easy to come by against an Arkansas team that ranks in the top 10 nationally for fielding percentage (.981, ninth), hits allowed per nine innings (7.5, fourth) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.7, eighth). But the well-disciplined Lopes counter that with the nation's 10th-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.1 to 1) and a .309 team batting average (13th nationally).

Facing the likes of SEC brethren Alabama, Auburn and Florida, Razborbacks starting pitcher Connor Noland has given up five runs in each of his past four starts without throwing more than five innings in each. His ERA was 2.26 until that stretch in which Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said he still pitched well.

"He's a bigtime performer," Stankiewicz said of Noland. "We expect him to be on top of his game and pitch his game. We really believe that we want a close game. We want to be able to play really good defense. We've been more successful when we've been able to scratch outs some 1s (one-run innings) early."

The Lopes counter the Razorbacks senior with WAC Pitcher of the Year Daniel Avitia, a freshman who was among the GCU players seeing the 1-year-old, 8,000-seat O'Brate Stadium for the first time on Thursday. The right-hander will face an Arkansas team hitting .269 with 86 home runs and matches "SEC physicality," Stankiewicz noted.

Nick Hansen

"When we got here last year, you walk into this stadium and you're like, 'Whoa, amazing,' " Stankiewicz said. "I think there's an awe factor, I'll be honest. It's a pretty special place. Now coming back here, I think we've been here, done that. That's a hurdle that we've already had to deal with."

GCU did not win in its series at Oklahoma State last year or Arkansas in 2020 but ended each one on an upswing – tying the Cowboys 4-4 last year and losing 10-9 to the Razorbacks in the COVID-shortened season finale.

"The cool thing about this team all year is we've had the utmost confidence," Lopes senior Nick Hansen said. "We never stray away from that. We're confident in ourselves and our team. Moving forward through this thing, obviously there's a little bit of a buzz and a little bit of excitement. It's special to be here, but we've been here before. We're not afraid of anything. We're going to get after it and play Canyon baseball."

Stillwater Regional schedule

double-elimination format
all times are Phoenix times

Friday, June 3

Game 1: No. 2 seed Arkansas vs. No. 3 seed GCU, 10 a.m. on SEC Network
Game 2: No. 1 seed Oklahoma State vs. No. 4 seed Missouri State, 4 p.m. on ESPN+

Saturday, June 4

Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 10 a.m. (TV TBD)
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 4 p.m. (TV TBD)

Sunday, June 5

Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, TBD (TV TBD)
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 4 p.m. (TV TBD)

Monday, June 6

Game 7 (if necessary): Game 6 rematch IF Game 5 winner wins Game 6, 4 p.m. (TV TBD)

Friday, June 3 | NCAA regional | O'Brate Stadium | Stillwater, Okla.

vs.

PITCHING PROBABLES

Stillwater Regional schedule

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Daniel Avitia

Juan Colato

Nick Hansen

Grand Canyon University Athletics