Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Wednesday, March 22
Phoenix, Ariz.
6 p.m.
Grand Canyon
1
at
11
Arizona State
Photo by: David Kadlubowski
Renewal of crosstown series goes to ASU
3/22/2023 9:28:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro
Lopes offense slowed to 6 hits; Sun Devils return trip on April 11 at GCU Ballpark
Grand Canyon baseball lost 13-2 two seasons ago at Arizona two seasons and was beat 11-1 by Stanford in California last year. Both teams wound up in the NCAA tournament.
So while an 11-1 loss at Arizona State stung for lopsided margin and sloppy manner, GCU is afforded a two-night turnaround to show how it reached a No. 25 national ranking this week.
The Lopes (14-6) did not resemble that team Wednesday night in the loss to the Sun Devils (13-8) at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, where the good feelings of a 1-0 start dissipated rapidly with only four more hits after the first inning and ASU scoring every other inning.
After an error-less weekend series, GCU made three errors for the only time this season besides its loss earlier this month to Arizona. Beyond those errors, the Lopes had other fundamental mistakes that were uncharacteristic of how the Lopes have won three consecutive series.
"This is re
ally the first time all year in a game that we've got knocked to our knees," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "So I just said to them, 'How are we going to respond?' Obviously, it hurts and it hurts especially because it's ASU. But throughout games, we've been punched and we've been resilient.
"Let's see how resilient we are from game to game. If we're the team that I think we are, we'll come out starting tomorrow having a great practice and then we'll respond Friday night by playing great baseball."
Because Wednesday's game was moved to avoid Tuesday's rain, the Lopes are now thankful for a quick pivot to a Friday-Sunday home series against Sam Houston. The Lopes and Bearkats were predicted to be the top WAC teams and GCU has a chance to catch or pass Sam Houston's 6-0 conference start.
Lopes junior center fielder Homer Bush Jr. and junior shortstop Jacob Wilson backed up their billing and hot-hitting seasons in the first inning, when Bush flared the game's first pitch to right for a single and scored on Wilson's opposite-field single.
Bush was the highlight of the game, gathering half of GCU's season-low hit total with a 3-for-4 night by adding a double on a 1-2 pitch and a full-count single. He raised his season batting average to .436 and is hitting .531 this month.
"Every game, he just gets tougher and tougher and more confident," Wallis said. "He's seeing the ball well. He's staying away from chasing down and out of the zone. When he gets to two strikes, he's scary."
GCU covered eight innings of pitching with six Lopes and quickly lost its 1-0 lead with ASU's three-run first inning, including the final run scoring on a two-out error.
While stranding at least one runner in every inning until the ninth, GCU fell behind 4-1 in third when a dropped third strike led to ASU second baseman Luke Keaschall scoring from third base on the throw to first base.
The Sun Devils' 14-hit day added two runs in the fifth with two of its four extra-base hits and broke the game open in the seventh, when they scored five runs and batted around the lineup despite hitting the ball out of the infield once. ASU used two errors, a walk and three infield hits to take an 11-1 lead.
"It started to snowball, and we couldn't get it stopped," Wallis said. "That's not us, and that's not our identity. We can't take it back. This is game 20. If it helps us win game 60, then that's all that matters. What can we tighten up from tonight to play better on Friday?"
GCU and ASU ranked Nos. 39 and 40 in the nation for batting average, but the Lopes went 1 for 12 with runners on base Friday night and took six of their eight strikeouts looking. ASU leads the Phoenix series 3-2 since it resumed in 2021.
"We've got to be a little bit more aggressive with two strikes," Wallis said. "We've built an identity of being really tough with two strikes and that didn't show up, along with a lot of things."
The key Lopes-Bearkats series plays at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at GCU Ballpark, where Sunday's finale will start at noon.
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So while an 11-1 loss at Arizona State stung for lopsided margin and sloppy manner, GCU is afforded a two-night turnaround to show how it reached a No. 25 national ranking this week.
The Lopes (14-6) did not resemble that team Wednesday night in the loss to the Sun Devils (13-8) at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, where the good feelings of a 1-0 start dissipated rapidly with only four more hits after the first inning and ASU scoring every other inning.
After an error-less weekend series, GCU made three errors for the only time this season besides its loss earlier this month to Arizona. Beyond those errors, the Lopes had other fundamental mistakes that were uncharacteristic of how the Lopes have won three consecutive series.
"This is re
ally the first time all year in a game that we've got knocked to our knees," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "So I just said to them, 'How are we going to respond?' Obviously, it hurts and it hurts especially because it's ASU. But throughout games, we've been punched and we've been resilient."Let's see how resilient we are from game to game. If we're the team that I think we are, we'll come out starting tomorrow having a great practice and then we'll respond Friday night by playing great baseball."
Because Wednesday's game was moved to avoid Tuesday's rain, the Lopes are now thankful for a quick pivot to a Friday-Sunday home series against Sam Houston. The Lopes and Bearkats were predicted to be the top WAC teams and GCU has a chance to catch or pass Sam Houston's 6-0 conference start.
Lopes junior center fielder Homer Bush Jr. and junior shortstop Jacob Wilson backed up their billing and hot-hitting seasons in the first inning, when Bush flared the game's first pitch to right for a single and scored on Wilson's opposite-field single.
Bush was the highlight of the game, gathering half of GCU's season-low hit total with a 3-for-4 night by adding a double on a 1-2 pitch and a full-count single. He raised his season batting average to .436 and is hitting .531 this month.
"Every game, he just gets tougher and tougher and more confident," Wallis said. "He's seeing the ball well. He's staying away from chasing down and out of the zone. When he gets to two strikes, he's scary."
GCU covered eight innings of pitching with six Lopes and quickly lost its 1-0 lead with ASU's three-run first inning, including the final run scoring on a two-out error.
While stranding at least one runner in every inning until the ninth, GCU fell behind 4-1 in third when a dropped third strike led to ASU second baseman Luke Keaschall scoring from third base on the throw to first base.The Sun Devils' 14-hit day added two runs in the fifth with two of its four extra-base hits and broke the game open in the seventh, when they scored five runs and batted around the lineup despite hitting the ball out of the infield once. ASU used two errors, a walk and three infield hits to take an 11-1 lead.
"It started to snowball, and we couldn't get it stopped," Wallis said. "That's not us, and that's not our identity. We can't take it back. This is game 20. If it helps us win game 60, then that's all that matters. What can we tighten up from tonight to play better on Friday?"
GCU and ASU ranked Nos. 39 and 40 in the nation for batting average, but the Lopes went 1 for 12 with runners on base Friday night and took six of their eight strikeouts looking. ASU leads the Phoenix series 3-2 since it resumed in 2021.
"We've got to be a little bit more aggressive with two strikes," Wallis said. "We've built an identity of being really tough with two strikes and that didn't show up, along with a lot of things."
The key Lopes-Bearkats series plays at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at GCU Ballpark, where Sunday's finale will start at noon.
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Players Mentioned
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