Completed Event: Baseball at Stanford on May 9, 2025 , Win , 4, to, 3
Baseball
at Stanford
W 4-3
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Sunday, May 14
Edinburg, Texas
10 a.m. (MST)
Grand Canyon
6
at
3
UT Rio Grande Valley
GCU caps undefeated Texas trip
5/14/2023 1:48:00 PM | Baseball
Andeel drives in 2 runs, makes 2 catches at wall to send Lopes to 10th straight win
EDINBURG, Texas — Grand Canyon's 11-day, three-city Texas road trip wrapped with another win, as the Lopes defeated UT Rio Grande Valley 6-3 on Sunday to complete a 6-0 trip.
With a three-game sweep at Tarleton, a midweek win at Baylor, and a two-game sweep of UTRGV, the Lopes (33-19, 19-7 WAC) return to Phoenix with a 10-game winning streak ahead of the regular season's final three games.
"We'll take it," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "It was a long trip. It was a great trip. It was great for the team to bond over 11 days. I can't even remember the last time we were home.
"We faced a lot of adversity, which was awesome for the stretch run. We had doubleheaders. We had rainouts. We had wind games. We basically had everything you can imagine thrown at us on this trip. We persevered and went 6-0. They weren't all easy. We had a lot of tough games that are going to harden us for the last two weekends."
GCU clinched a top-two seed for the upcoming WAC Tournament. Not only have the Lopes guaranteed themselves a first-round bye, but they have also guaranteed that they will face an opponent who does not have the benefit of a first-round bye.
The Lopes have won 10 games consecutively for the first time as a Division I program. It's GCU's longest winning streak since winning 20 in a row in 2013, the program's final D-II season.
GCU left fielder Maxwell Andeel had three of the game's biggest plays on Sunday. The sophomore drove in two first-inning runs on a double and made run-saving catches in the third and fifth innings.
"The play in the outfield was so good, I forgot about the huge double that he had in the first," Wallis said. "The play in the outfield was the play of the year, maybe so far the moment of the year. Max goes into the fence to take away an extra-base hit with two runners on and two outs. It was just an incredible play. He sacrificed his body for the team and he made a huge catch."
Although both required jumps from the base of the outfield wall, the fifth-inning snag was the more impressive of the two. Andeel climbed the wall, planting his right foot one-third of the way up the padding and making the catch over his left shoulder at the top of the fence. With two outs, runners on first and second were off on the contact and would have scored easily. The all-out effort ended Andeel's day, though the left fielder walked off under his own power after receiving attention in the outfield.
"We saw that he had hit five home runs in the SEC last year," Wallis said. "We knew he had some power in the bat. He's playing every day. He's in a rhythm. He's taking some great swings. He's a strong kid, and his home runs are a product of swinging at good pitches and taking a short, powerful swing."
Junior left-hander Zach Thornton used 86 pitches to navigate five innings, surrendering three runs and picking up his eighth win of the season.
"Zach battled," Wallis said. "I wouldn't say he was at his best, and that's a compliment because he gave up only three runs in five innings and got a win. He did what we needed him to do. We weren't going to extend him too much today since we had the full bullpen. He's going to have to come back on short rest for next week. I thought it was a perfect outing from a big-picture standpoint. He competed for us. He gave us solid innings, and then we limited his pitch count so he could come back strong."
The bullpen protected the lead with Cody Tucker, Nathan Ward and Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis combining to post four scoreless innings. Ward tossed two hitless frames and struck out three. Cooper-Vassalakis earned his sixth save, three of which came during the road trip.
"It's been a turning point," Wallis said. "As we were struggling midseason, it's actually an opportunity for us to pitch a lot of guys and see a lot of arms. Once we felt that we needed to find some pieces, we started to see who wanted to step forward. As a result, they've all stepped forward. Every guy we go to in the bullpen is giving us their best. They're their strongest at the right time."
Milestones approach for GCU heading into the final three games of the regular season:
The regular season concludes at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark where the Lopes host California Baptist for three games beginning on Thursday at 7 p.m.
With a three-game sweep at Tarleton, a midweek win at Baylor, and a two-game sweep of UTRGV, the Lopes (33-19, 19-7 WAC) return to Phoenix with a 10-game winning streak ahead of the regular season's final three games.
"We'll take it," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "It was a long trip. It was a great trip. It was great for the team to bond over 11 days. I can't even remember the last time we were home.
"We faced a lot of adversity, which was awesome for the stretch run. We had doubleheaders. We had rainouts. We had wind games. We basically had everything you can imagine thrown at us on this trip. We persevered and went 6-0. They weren't all easy. We had a lot of tough games that are going to harden us for the last two weekends."
GCU clinched a top-two seed for the upcoming WAC Tournament. Not only have the Lopes guaranteed themselves a first-round bye, but they have also guaranteed that they will face an opponent who does not have the benefit of a first-round bye.
The Lopes have won 10 games consecutively for the first time as a Division I program. It's GCU's longest winning streak since winning 20 in a row in 2013, the program's final D-II season.
GCU left fielder Maxwell Andeel had three of the game's biggest plays on Sunday. The sophomore drove in two first-inning runs on a double and made run-saving catches in the third and fifth innings.
"The play in the outfield was so good, I forgot about the huge double that he had in the first," Wallis said. "The play in the outfield was the play of the year, maybe so far the moment of the year. Max goes into the fence to take away an extra-base hit with two runners on and two outs. It was just an incredible play. He sacrificed his body for the team and he made a huge catch."
Although both required jumps from the base of the outfield wall, the fifth-inning snag was the more impressive of the two. Andeel climbed the wall, planting his right foot one-third of the way up the padding and making the catch over his left shoulder at the top of the fence. With two outs, runners on first and second were off on the contact and would have scored easily. The all-out effort ended Andeel's day, though the left fielder walked off under his own power after receiving attention in the outfield.
While Andeel's highlight-reel catch protected a 4-3 GCU lead, the Lopes were searching for more insurance and got it in the ninth from graduate second baseman Zack Gregory. Junior center fielder Homer Bush Jr. was hit by a pitch, and Gregory hit his team-leading 10th home run of the season to right field. Gregory hit two in two games at UTRGV to eclipse his eight-homer career total prior to this season..@AndeelMaxwell AGAIN! Oh my! #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/TQRD7oMNuu
— Grand Canyon Baseball (@GCU_Baseball) May 14, 2023
"We saw that he had hit five home runs in the SEC last year," Wallis said. "We knew he had some power in the bat. He's playing every day. He's in a rhythm. He's taking some great swings. He's a strong kid, and his home runs are a product of swinging at good pitches and taking a short, powerful swing."
Junior left-hander Zach Thornton used 86 pitches to navigate five innings, surrendering three runs and picking up his eighth win of the season.
"Zach battled," Wallis said. "I wouldn't say he was at his best, and that's a compliment because he gave up only three runs in five innings and got a win. He did what we needed him to do. We weren't going to extend him too much today since we had the full bullpen. He's going to have to come back on short rest for next week. I thought it was a perfect outing from a big-picture standpoint. He competed for us. He gave us solid innings, and then we limited his pitch count so he could come back strong."
The bullpen protected the lead with Cody Tucker, Nathan Ward and Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis combining to post four scoreless innings. Ward tossed two hitless frames and struck out three. Cooper-Vassalakis earned his sixth save, three of which came during the road trip.
"It's been a turning point," Wallis said. "As we were struggling midseason, it's actually an opportunity for us to pitch a lot of guys and see a lot of arms. Once we felt that we needed to find some pieces, we started to see who wanted to step forward. As a result, they've all stepped forward. Every guy we go to in the bullpen is giving us their best. They're their strongest at the right time."
Milestones approach for GCU heading into the final three games of the regular season:
- Junior Elijah Buries picked up two hits on Sunday and now sits at 199 for his career.
- Junior Jacob Wilson also had two hits and needs just two more to surpass Austin Bull's 217 career hits for most in a GCU D-I career.
- Freshman Zach Yorke sits four RBIs away from Tim Salmon's mark of 61 RBIs for most in a season by a Lopes freshman.
- Junior Homer Bush Jr. needs two stolen bases to break GCU's D-I single-season stolen base record.
- GCU will break the program's cumulative attendance record on Thursday, needing just 336 fans to eclipse last year's total of 36,842 fans.
The regular season concludes at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark where the Lopes host California Baptist for three games beginning on Thursday at 7 p.m.
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