Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Monday, April 24
Phoenix, Ariz.
12 p.m.
Grand Canyon
23-18
2
vs
13
Oregon State
27-13
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Oregon State
0
0
0
6
3
2
2
0
0
13
18
1
Grand Canyon
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
2
5
2
Photo by: Zach Campbell
No. 22 Oregon State stifles GCU
4/24/2023 4:27:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro
Lopes held to 5 hits by nation's No. 10 staff; Yorke reaches bases 3 times
The wrong day for Grand Canyon to see Oregon State is when the Beavers' top-10 pitching staff is stinging from getting blistered on the weekend and its bats have found a groove.
No. 22 Oregon State spoiled a pleasant Monday afternoon at GCU Ballpark by holding the Lopes to five hits and winning 13-2 by maintaining its 10-run average in the past five games. It marked the Lopes' most lopsided loss since GCU's first NCAA Division I tournament team also suffered a 13-2 defeat to a top-25 opponent, Arizona, two years ago.
GCU led 1-0 after three innings with pitchers Maddox Thornton, Jace Smith and Bryan Webb escaping jams to strand seven Beaver runners on base. The Lopes took the lead by pushing freshman first baseman Zach Yorke around the bases after his second-inning leadoff walk with sophomore left fielder Maxwell Andeel's single and an Oregon State error.
But when GCU (23-18) did not handle an inning-ending, double-play ball with the game tied at 1-1 in the fourth inning, 2022 Super Regional qualifer Oregon State (27-13) pounced on the opportunity with two run-scoring singles and junior right fielder Brady Kasper's three-run homer for a 6-1 lead.
The Beavers scored 13 unanswered runs in the fourth through seventh innings as the Lopes used nine pitchers, eight of which threw an inning or 1 1/3 innings. Thornton, a junior college starting pitcher in Arkansas, was pitching just his fourth GCU outing but had showed promising signs with his 90-plus fastball and lively sliders last week at Texas Tech.
Redshirt freshman Walt Quinn and freshman Isaac Lyon finished the game with shutout stints for the Lopes.
Monday's game marked the fifth time that GCU has been held to five hits or fewer, with three of those coming to top-25 opponents in the past week (twice at Texas Tech last week).
"It continues to show us where we're at and also show us either what we're doing well or where we need to get better at to get to where we want to go to," Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis said. "Playing great competition only makes your program stronger."
The Lopes added their second run in the eighth inning, when freshman shortstop Emilio Barreras, a midgame replacement, doubled to left field and Yorke followed with a one-out RBI single before being thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double.
The freshmen, Yorke (.352) and Barreras (.303), rank behind only MLB Draft prospects Jacob Wilson and Homer Bush in hitting on the team. Yorke's on-base percentage reached .455 with a one-hit, two-walk day.
Another mid-game replacement, redshirt freshman catcher John Sheehan, reached base in each of his plate appearances with a walk and a triple. His batting average had dipped below .100 in limited opportunities until going 2 for 4 with a walk in the past two games.
"I've been struggling lately and working with Coach Jack (Wilson) to get my pitch, see the ball a little bit more and take more pitches rather than jumping on the first one," said Sheehan, who is from Elk Grove, California. "On the second one, (Elijah) Buries told me he was seeing a little bit of sink so I was prepared for that."
With a weekend sweep of Utah Tech, GCU pulled within a game of first-place Sam Houston in the conference race. The Lopes have a nonconference trip this weekend, when they will play Long Beach State and Nevada twice each in Reno before coming home to face Arizona on Tuesday.
"Our main goal is to win a WAC championship and make a regional," Sheehan said. "We won well in these past WAC games this weekend and we've got some nonconference games coming up, so we're going to try to turn it around after this rough one and see what we can do."
Playing four-game weekends successively is intentional because of what GCU will need to do in the double-elimination WAC Tournament, which is May 23-27 at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa.
"It's a great test at the end of the year of our stamina and depth," Wallis said. "A lot of guys are going to have to contribute for us to win a championship. Over the four games in Reno vs. Long Beach State and Nevada, there are two more quality opponents that we're going to get to pitch a lot of guys and play a lot of guys to build for the stretch run."
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No. 22 Oregon State spoiled a pleasant Monday afternoon at GCU Ballpark by holding the Lopes to five hits and winning 13-2 by maintaining its 10-run average in the past five games. It marked the Lopes' most lopsided loss since GCU's first NCAA Division I tournament team also suffered a 13-2 defeat to a top-25 opponent, Arizona, two years ago.
GCU led 1-0 after three innings with pitchers Maddox Thornton, Jace Smith and Bryan Webb escaping jams to strand seven Beaver runners on base. The Lopes took the lead by pushing freshman first baseman Zach Yorke around the bases after his second-inning leadoff walk with sophomore left fielder Maxwell Andeel's single and an Oregon State error.
But when GCU (23-18) did not handle an inning-ending, double-play ball with the game tied at 1-1 in the fourth inning, 2022 Super Regional qualifer Oregon State (27-13) pounced on the opportunity with two run-scoring singles and junior right fielder Brady Kasper's three-run homer for a 6-1 lead.
The Beavers scored 13 unanswered runs in the fourth through seventh innings as the Lopes used nine pitchers, eight of which threw an inning or 1 1/3 innings. Thornton, a junior college starting pitcher in Arkansas, was pitching just his fourth GCU outing but had showed promising signs with his 90-plus fastball and lively sliders last week at Texas Tech.
Redshirt freshman Walt Quinn and freshman Isaac Lyon finished the game with shutout stints for the Lopes.
Monday's game marked the fifth time that GCU has been held to five hits or fewer, with three of those coming to top-25 opponents in the past week (twice at Texas Tech last week).
"It continues to show us where we're at and also show us either what we're doing well or where we need to get better at to get to where we want to go to," Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis said. "Playing great competition only makes your program stronger."
The Lopes added their second run in the eighth inning, when freshman shortstop Emilio Barreras, a midgame replacement, doubled to left field and Yorke followed with a one-out RBI single before being thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double.The freshmen, Yorke (.352) and Barreras (.303), rank behind only MLB Draft prospects Jacob Wilson and Homer Bush in hitting on the team. Yorke's on-base percentage reached .455 with a one-hit, two-walk day.
Another mid-game replacement, redshirt freshman catcher John Sheehan, reached base in each of his plate appearances with a walk and a triple. His batting average had dipped below .100 in limited opportunities until going 2 for 4 with a walk in the past two games.
"I've been struggling lately and working with Coach Jack (Wilson) to get my pitch, see the ball a little bit more and take more pitches rather than jumping on the first one," said Sheehan, who is from Elk Grove, California. "On the second one, (Elijah) Buries told me he was seeing a little bit of sink so I was prepared for that."
With a weekend sweep of Utah Tech, GCU pulled within a game of first-place Sam Houston in the conference race. The Lopes have a nonconference trip this weekend, when they will play Long Beach State and Nevada twice each in Reno before coming home to face Arizona on Tuesday.
"Our main goal is to win a WAC championship and make a regional," Sheehan said. "We won well in these past WAC games this weekend and we've got some nonconference games coming up, so we're going to try to turn it around after this rough one and see what we can do."
Playing four-game weekends successively is intentional because of what GCU will need to do in the double-elimination WAC Tournament, which is May 23-27 at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa.
"It's a great test at the end of the year of our stamina and depth," Wallis said. "A lot of guys are going to have to contribute for us to win a championship. Over the four games in Reno vs. Long Beach State and Nevada, there are two more quality opponents that we're going to get to pitch a lot of guys and play a lot of guys to build for the stretch run."
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Larson, Rhett (3-1)
L: Heaton, Tyson (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Bazzana, Travis 1 ; Guerra, Mason 1 ; Kane, Mikey 1
HR: McDowell, Micah 1 ; Kasper, Brady 1
RBI: Bazzana, Travis 2 ; Forrester, Garret 1 ; McDowell, Micah 3 ; Guerra, Mason 1 ; Kasper, Brady 3 ; Weber, Wilson 1 ; Dernedde, Kyle 2
SH: Dernedde, Kyle 1
SF: Weber, Wilson 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Bazzana, Travis 2 ; Forrester, Garret 1 ; McDowell, Micah 2 ; Guerra, Mason 2 ; Kasper, Brady 1 ; Cedillo, Ruben 1 ; Kane, Mikey 1 ; Weber, Wilson 1 ; Peterson, Tyce 1 ; Dernedde, Kyle 1
SB: Bazzana, Travis 2
Batting:
2B: Barreras, Emilio 1
3B: Sheehan, John 1
RBI: Yorke, Zach 1
SH: Paton, Eli 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Barreras, Emilio 1 ; Yorke, Zach 1
CS: Bush Jr., Homer 1
HBP: Verdusco, Cade 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
1
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
lf/rf
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
ph/c
AB
1
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
OF
/ BaseballINF
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UTIL
/ Baseball
RHP
/ BaseballC
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballUTIL
/ BaseballGCU Baseball - WAC Tournament vs. Utah Tech - Highlights
Thursday, May 22
Baseball at Stanford - Barreras' game-winning double
Saturday, May 10
Baseball vs. Arizona (5/6/25) - Yorke homers twice to break record
Wednesday, May 07
GCU Baseball - Eli Paton walk-off single vs. UTA
Saturday, April 26