Lopes fall to Wildcats in midweek matchup

Tuesday, March 7

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

8-4

Arizona

9-3

Arizona

Grand Canyon

3/7/2023 10:28:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Bush Jr. extends hitting streak, Lopes bring winning run to the plate in the 9th

By: Jerob Moon

The Grand Canyon baseball team dropped the first of three games against in-state rival on Tuesday night, falling 12-10 at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark.

The Lopes (8-4) fell behind 7-0 early after just two innings but continued to chip away eventually bringing the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth but were unable to bring him around.

"Obviously it didn't start the way we wanted getting down 7-0 in a hurry," head coach Gregg Wallis said. "But then we stayed positive and in the ballgame and we closed the gap. We gave ourselves a shot, with an extra base hit one swing in the ninth we could have tied it or taken the lead. I'm proud of the resilience.

We never want to lose, and we don't care who it's against, we never want to lose a ballgame. But we did show some relicense and I think if we stay with that grit, we'll be successful more times than not."

The Lopes began to crawl back in the fourth off an RBI single by junior center fielder Homer Bush Jr to get on the board. It was the second of a three-hit night for Bush Jr. and he finished with three runs scored and a pair of RBIs. The Southlake, Texas native has hit safely in the last eight games batting .486 with three doubles and nine RBIs.

GCU would go on to score four runs in the third inning to make it a 7-4 ballgame, one of those runs came off a Jacob Wilson base hit. The junior shortshop would finish with two hits and two RBIs.

"I think he's really confident at the plate right now and sticking to his approach," Wallis said about Bush Jr. "I think he's worked real hard with Coach Jack (Wilson), he's one of the hardest workers I've been around. He trusts his approach, he's seeing the ball real well right now and he's doing a nice job hitting the ball hard and getting on base to set the table for us. I can't say enough about what Homer is going for us right now."

Every time the Lopes would score runs to close the gap the Wildcats (9-4) would respond the next half inning. Three consecutive innings Arizona would score after the Lopes put runs on the board as the GCU bullpen was unable to keep the Wildcat bats at bay.

In the bottom of the eighth the Lopes made it a three-run ballgame with two runs scored with two outs. Bush Jr. drove in one run off his third hit and advanced to third after an Arizona throwing error. He would come around to score in the next at bat as second baseman Zach Gregory singled up the middle to put GCU down 12-9.

In the final half inning the Lopes brought the winning run to the plate after outfielder Cade Verdusco scored Elijah Buries with an RBI single to make it 12-10. Catcher Josh Buckley popped up to second that turned into a fielder's choice and Maxwell Andeel grounded to the Arizona shortstop to end the game.
The Lopes will now turn their attention to the start of Western Athletic Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against New Mexico State at GCU Ballpark.

"I think we're tested, we've played 12 really tough games," Wallis said. "We're battled tested and now we get to go to conference play and show that. The conference is going to be tough. It's not the WAC that everyone thinks about six, seven years ago, it's changed. We know every weekend is going to be a dogfight. We just have to play good baseball and do our thing and the weekend will take care of itself."