Road schedule wraps at UTRGV

Friday-Sunday, May 12-14 \| UTRGV Baseball Stadium \| Edinburg, Texas

	UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY VAQUEROS (26-21, 12-12 WAC)	vs.	GRAND CANYON LOPES (31-19, 17-7 WAC)

PITCHING PROBABLES

Friday, May 12 • 4:30 p.m. (Phoenix time)
Live Stats • Watch on ESPN+
LHP Randy Garza (2-1, 7.97) vs. RHP Daniel Avitia (6-1, 4.28)

Saturday, May 13 • 4:30 p.m. (Phoenix time)
Live Stats • Watch on ESPN+
RHP Angelo Cabral (9-1, 3.52) vs. LHP Zach Thornton (7-1, 3.53)

Sunday, May 14 • 10 a.m. (Phoenix time)
Live Stats • Watch on ESPN+
RHP Colten Davis (4-2, 3.92) vs. RHP Carter Young (2-2, 7.34)

The road schedule comes to a close for Grand Canyon in Edinburg, Texas, with the regular season's finish line on the near horizon. Sitting one game out of first place in the conference standings, the Lopes open a three-game series at UT Rio Grande Valley on Friday at 4:30 p.m. (Phoenix time).

All three games will be available on ESPN+.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

STANDINGS WATCH: Grand Canyon currently sits alone in second place in the WAC standings. The teams directly above (Sam Houston) and below (UT Arlington) the Lopes meet for a three-game series in Huntsville, Texas, this weekend. In the final six games, GCU needs to move one game forward to match Sam Houston and claim at least a share of its fifth regular-season title in six seasons. The Bearkats, however, do hold a head-to-head tiebreaker, so the Lopes need to make up two games in the standings to claim the WAC Tournament's No. 1 seed. Eight teams make the tournament and the top four receive first-round byes.
PITCHING OF LATE: Lopes pitching has been clicking of late, limiting opponents to 21 runs on 44 hits over the last eight games for an earned-run average of 2.86. In the eight-game span, GCU pitching has had single-game opponent hit totals of five (Nevada), four (Nevada) and one (Baylor). GCU is 23-4 when holding its opponent to five or less runs.
SOME STREAKS: GCU freshman first baseman Zach Yorke is currently riding a 30-game reached-base streak, needing one more game to break a tie with Preston Pavlica's 2018 30-game streak for the longest since 2011 ... GCU has not committed an error in six straight games, the longest such streak in over five years ... the Lopes have won eight consecutively, matching the 2022 team's longest win streaks.

SCOUTING

UT Rio Grande Valley is heavily in the mix for a top-four seed in the WAC Tournament, currently sitting in seventh but just one game out of a three-team tie for fourth. The Vaqueros are 17-11 at home and sit at No. 126 in RPI.

The Vaqueros are returning to Edinburg after an eight-game road stretch where they went 3-5. In recent WAC action, UTRGV won two of three at Sacramento State last weekend, lost two of three at UT Arlington the prior weekend, and won two of three against Abilene Christian at home before that.

Although ranking fifth in the WAC in ERA (5.64), UTRGV pitching leads the conference in strikeouts and surrenders the second-fewest hits per game behind only Tarleton. Offensively, UTRGV ranks third in the WAC in batting average.

WHAT'S NEXT?

GCU concludes its regular-season schedule with a three-game series against California Baptist beginning on Thursday night at GCU Ballpark.

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

Friday-Sunday, May 12-14 | UTRGV Baseball Stadium | Edinburg, Texas

vs.

PITCHING PROBABLES

THREE THINGS TO KNOW

SCOUTING

WHAT'S NEXT?

Players Mentioned

Daniel Avitia

Zach Thornton

Zach Yorke

Carter Young

Grand Canyon University Athletics