WAC series starts Lopes' 5-game, 6-day West Texas trip

Friday-Sunday, April 14-16 \| Crutcher Scott Field \| Abilene, Texas

	ABILENE CHRISTIAN WILDCATS (23-9, 8-4 WAC)	vs.	GRAND CANYON LOPES (18-14, 9-6 WAC)

PITCHING PROBABLES

Friday, April 14 • 4 p.m. (Phoenix time)
Live Stats • Watch
RHP Tyler Morgan (2-2, 4.37) vs. LHP Connor Markl (2-0, 5.29)

Saturday, April 15 • 1 p.m. (Phoenix time)
Live Stats • Watch
RHP Breck Eichelberger (4-1, 5.63) vs. RHP Daniel Avitia (4-1, 5.01)

Sunday, April 16 • 11 a.m. (Phoenix time)
Live Stats • Watch
RHP Austin Glaze (4-1, 5.63) vs. TBA

Grand Canyon begins a five-game stretch in West Texas when it opens up a WAC series at Abilene Christian on Friday. The Lopes and Wildcats are neck and neck in the conference standings with GCU sitting a half-game behind Abilene Christian entering the series.

All three games will be streamed on ESPN+.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

THROW IT BACK TO '14: GCU is visiting Abilene Christian for the first time since 2014. In their first year back at the Division I level, the Lopes played Kansas State twice and Abilene Christian once at Crutcher Scott Field. It was GCU head coach Gregg Wallis' third weekend of games as a first-year Lopes assistant coach. GCU and Abilene Christian were amid transitions to D-I with the Wildcats beginning the process one year earlier than the Lopes.
TEXAS TINT: The Lopes will get accustomed to playing games in the Lone Star State with 12 of their 24 remaining regular-season games set to be played in Texas. GCU begins a five-game stretch in West Texas on Friday, playing Abilene Christian in a three-game series before moving on to play two games at Texas Tech. In early May, GCU will return to the state for a three-game set at Tarleton, a midweek matchup at Baylor and another three-game set at UT Rio Grande Valley. The Lopes have more games remaining in Texas than they have remaining at GCU Ballpark.
TACK ON EARLY: One of the strengths of GCU's offense this season has been getting on the board early... and really early. The Lopes have struck for runs in the first inning in 11 of their last 15 games and have scored 33 runs (13.5%) in the first inning. GCU has beat its opponent to the scoring punch in 21 of 32 games this year.

SCOUTING

Abilene Christian sits in third in the WAC standings entering this weekend after dropping two of three games at league-leading Sam Houston last weekend. In other conference action, the Wildcats swept Stephen F. Austin and took two of three games from UT Arlington and Sacramento State.

The Lopes and Wildcats mirrored results last weekend, falling in WAC series before hosting in-state, top-25 foes for midweek action and dropping those.

Abilene Christian is in its second season in the WAC. Despite not being scheduled to play a regular-season series in 2022, the Lopes and Wildcats still managed to meet three times. The two programs played three nonconsecutive games in the WAC Tournament. The Lopes won the first game — an 8-4 win in GCU's tournament opener — before dropping back-to-back results to Abilene Christian to be eliminated from the tournament.

GCU and Abilene Christian's stats are similar in the major categories with the Lopes holding the edge in team batting average (.306 to .300) and the Wildcats holding the slim margin in earned run average (5.54 to 5.64).

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Lopes trek further west to Lubbock for a two-game midweek set at No. 21 Texas Tech on Tuesday and Wednesday.

For more GCU baseball news, notes and numbers, click here to view game notes and click here to view the media guide.