Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, March 31
Orem, Utah
5 p.m. (MST)
Grand Canyon
at
Utah Valley
GCU heads north for series at Utah Valley
3/30/2023 9:50:00 AM | Baseball
Lopes hold 10-series win streak in WAC road play, visit Orem for 4th straight conference season
Friday-Sunday, March 31 - April 2 | UCCU Ballpark | Orem, Utah |
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UTAH VALLEY
WOLVERINES (14-10, 2-2 WAC)
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vs. |
GRAND CANYON
LOPES (15-9, 6-3 WAC)
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PITCHING PROBABLES |
| Friday, March 31 • 5 p.m. (Phoenix time) Live Stats  • Watch  • Listen RHP Jayse Burkett (2-1, 2.61)  vs.  LHP Zach Thornton (4-0, 2.70) |
| Saturday, April 1 • 1 p.m. (Phoenix time) Live Stats  • Watch  • Listen RHP Logan Gerling (5-0, 2.84)  vs.  RHP Daniel Avitia (2-1, 4.85) |
| Sunday, April 2 • 11 a.m. (Phoenix time) Live Stats  • Watch  • Listen TBA  vs.  TBA |
Grand Canyon heads to Utah Valley for the fourth straight conference season. The Lopes hold a 10-series win streak in WAC road play. The series is scheduled to get underway on Friday at 5 p.m. (Phoenix time).
All three games will be streamed on ESPN+ as well as an audio stream with the Lopes' Michael Potter on GCULopes.com.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW
- WILSON'S WAYS: GCU junior shortstop Jacob Wilson is living up to his national reputation. D1Baseball.com reaffirmed Wilson's status this week with new rankings, naming him one of college baseball's top five prospects and the nation's top shortstop. Wilson ranks second nationally with a .479 batting average that sits behind only Dylan Crews of LSU (.542). With 35 RBIs, he leads the WAC and ranks 22nd nationally.
 - THORNTON IN GAME 1: Lopes junior left-hander Zach Thornton has started the first game of each of GCU's weekend series this year and is Friday's probable pitcher at Utah Valley. Thornton is a two-time WAC Pitcher of the Week. He ranks 14th nationally and leads the WAC with 49 strikeouts, and his 2.70 ERA is second in the conference. Including his two junior college seasons, Thornton has a 20-1 record on the mound.
 - BACK TO OREM: Including the weekend's upcoming series, GCU will have played 13 of the last 16 games in the Utah Valley series in Orem. The Lopes have visited UCCU Ballpark in the last four WAC seasons (2020 not played). GCU holds a 12-4 record in Orem with the first visit taking place in 2015. More series history.
SCOUTING
Utah Valley is off to a 14-10 start in head coach Eddie Smith's second season. The Wolverines are looking to post the program's first winning campaign since 2016. Smith was most recently an assistant coach at LSU, and led the Wolverines to a 19-37 record in 2022, including 10-20 in WAC play.
The Wolverines opened this season with four straight four-game series in nonconference play, splitting the sets at UC Davis, at Portland and at home against Lehigh, while winning three of four at UC Riverside. Utah Valley dropped its first WAC series at Seattle U while winning the only game that was played of a scheduled three-game set against Tarleton. Two games against Tarleton were canceled, and one was played in St. George, Utah.
Utah Valley is coming off a midweek win against BYU at home, where the Wolverines scored five runs in the ninth to win 9-8.
The Wolverines rank 10th in the WAC with a .263 team batting average and sixth in the WAC with a 5.74 ERA.
WHAT'S NEXT?
GCU heads to Las Vegas to make up a postponed game from earlier in the season. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. at UNLV on Tuesday.Â
For more GCU baseball news, notes and numbers, click here to view game notes and click here to view the media guide.
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