Upcoming Event: Baseball versus MLB Desert Invitational on February 13, 2026
Baseball
vs MLB Desert Invitational
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, May 26
Mesa, Ariz.
5:30 p.m.
Grand Canyon
37-21
8
vs
22
Sam Houston
36-23
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
R
H
E
Sam Houston State
3
9
4
0
0
0
0
6
22
24
3
Grand Canyon
0
2
5
0
1
0
0
0
8
13
3
Lopes upended by Bearkats to exit WAC tourney
5/26/2023 8:55:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro
Sam Houston took 12-0 lead after 2; GCU allows most runs in 6 years
Grand Canyon snatched a WAC regular-season championship away from Sam Houston on the final day in shocking fashion last weekend.
The Lopes needed to pull off something more stunning at the WAC Tournament on Friday night. The Bearkats exacted revenge by carrying over a 17-run onslaught in a preceding game to a 12-0 start on GCU through two innings, and the Lopes could not recover to keep its season alive.
Sam Houston won 22-8 in an eight-inning, run-rule game at Hohokam Stadium, ending the Lopes season with consecutive tournament losses just six days after celebrating their third consecutive WAC regular-season title.
"That was not how we wanted to end it," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "But it doesn't take away from what we did all year. It's a tough time to have a tough weekend. We've got to figure out why, when we play so well in the regular seasons, we seem to come to Hohokam and not play our best baseball."
GCU (37-21), whose 14-game winning streak ended Thursday night, dug its largest hole of the season on Friday night at 12-0 after Sam Houston's nine-run second inning. That matched Arizona State for the highest-scoring inning by a Lopes opponent this season. GCU junior right-hander Carter Young was coming off two quality starts with a 2.08 ERA in those wins, but he lasted two batters into the second inning after allowing five hits, a walk and a hit batsman.
Late-season closer Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis, a GCU fifh-year senior with a 1.08 ERA in conference play, entered but did not survive the inning with one out against eight batters. The right-hander was hurt by two Lopes errors, but the major blow was Sam Houston sophomore catcher Walter Janek's three-run home run. Janek also doubled three times against GCU, giving him seven RBIs in the game and 11 in the Bearkats' two Friday wins.
"I was expecting them to get out hot," Wallis said. "I had a feeling we were going to have to score a lot of runs to win. We tried to make a little push, but we didn't have enough in the tank and they kept coming too. It's not a good time to not play your best."
The Lopes' threat to re-emerge came in the third inning, when they scored five runs but still trailed 16-7. Three Sam Houston errors contributed to the runs, one of which scored on the first of graduate second baseman Zack Gregory's two doubles. Gregory, who went 3 for 3 with a walk, hit his second double and Bush added an RBI single with two outs in the fifth inning to make the margin 16-8.
Senior right-hander Hunter Omlid was giving GCU opportunities to climb back into the game with his season's best outing. After Sam Houston (36-23) scored 33 runs in its first 12 innings on Friday, Omlid struck out four and allowed only two hits to shut out the Bearkats for four innings with little Lopes pushback.
"He was awesome," Wallis said of Omlid, who was limited to 10 1/3 innings this season until Friday because of an injury that sidelined him until late March. "He gave us a shot. We started to make a little comeback because he threw up zero after zero, and he gave us a little bit of momentum. It was a tall hill to climb and we started to climb because of what he did."
But on its 39-run day, Sam Houston piled on with a six-run eighth inning to put the 10-run rule in effect for a game that started 94 minutes late and pushed the Friday tournament nightcap into a start that was more than two hours later than scheduled.
Sam Houston's 22-run output was the most that GCU allowed since a 22-3 loss at New Mexico in 2017. The Bearkats' 24 hits were the most the Lopes had yielded since 2019 when Xavier collected 24 in a loss to the Lopes.
"We just had a bad weekend," said GCU junior designated hitter Tyler Wilson, who went 6 for 8 in the two tourney losses to finish with a .303 average. "I'm just really proud of this team. We didn't stop fighting. There's not much more you can ask for besides that. It's obviously not the way we wanted things to end, but I'm proud of the guys. I'm proud of the way we fought. We'll come back next year and get it."
The loss marked the likely end of a remarkable GCU career for junior Jacob Wilson, a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist who is projected by many to be selected high in the MLB Draft first round on July 9.
The three-year starter went 1 for 5 on Friday to finish the season with a .417 batting average and just five strikeouts in 192 at bats, making him the hardest player to strike out in college baseball for a second consecutive season. The Lopes have won 80% of conference games since his junior class came aboard.
"It's definitely tough," said Jacob Wilson, who spent this season with his father, Jack, as a Lopes assistant coach. "We fought so hard throughout the entire season. We tried as hard as we could to win this thing and fell short. I'm always going to be proud of these guys for what they brought every single day, for everything they brought to me as a person and as a player. I'm really grateful to be part of this group. It didn't end our way, but I'll remember these memories, winning 14 straight and this squad."
Before packing up a dugout full of emotions, Wallis addressed his first team as head coach in the standard postgame on-field huddle, telling the Lopes, "Leave with your heads high and your chests out. We're the regular-season champions. We've accomplished some amazing things this season."
The Lopes needed to pull off something more stunning at the WAC Tournament on Friday night. The Bearkats exacted revenge by carrying over a 17-run onslaught in a preceding game to a 12-0 start on GCU through two innings, and the Lopes could not recover to keep its season alive.
Sam Houston won 22-8 in an eight-inning, run-rule game at Hohokam Stadium, ending the Lopes season with consecutive tournament losses just six days after celebrating their third consecutive WAC regular-season title.
"That was not how we wanted to end it," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "But it doesn't take away from what we did all year. It's a tough time to have a tough weekend. We've got to figure out why, when we play so well in the regular seasons, we seem to come to Hohokam and not play our best baseball."GCU (37-21), whose 14-game winning streak ended Thursday night, dug its largest hole of the season on Friday night at 12-0 after Sam Houston's nine-run second inning. That matched Arizona State for the highest-scoring inning by a Lopes opponent this season. GCU junior right-hander Carter Young was coming off two quality starts with a 2.08 ERA in those wins, but he lasted two batters into the second inning after allowing five hits, a walk and a hit batsman.
Late-season closer Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis, a GCU fifh-year senior with a 1.08 ERA in conference play, entered but did not survive the inning with one out against eight batters. The right-hander was hurt by two Lopes errors, but the major blow was Sam Houston sophomore catcher Walter Janek's three-run home run. Janek also doubled three times against GCU, giving him seven RBIs in the game and 11 in the Bearkats' two Friday wins.
"I was expecting them to get out hot," Wallis said. "I had a feeling we were going to have to score a lot of runs to win. We tried to make a little push, but we didn't have enough in the tank and they kept coming too. It's not a good time to not play your best."
The Lopes' threat to re-emerge came in the third inning, when they scored five runs but still trailed 16-7. Three Sam Houston errors contributed to the runs, one of which scored on the first of graduate second baseman Zack Gregory's two doubles. Gregory, who went 3 for 3 with a walk, hit his second double and Bush added an RBI single with two outs in the fifth inning to make the margin 16-8.
Senior right-hander Hunter Omlid was giving GCU opportunities to climb back into the game with his season's best outing. After Sam Houston (36-23) scored 33 runs in its first 12 innings on Friday, Omlid struck out four and allowed only two hits to shut out the Bearkats for four innings with little Lopes pushback."He was awesome," Wallis said of Omlid, who was limited to 10 1/3 innings this season until Friday because of an injury that sidelined him until late March. "He gave us a shot. We started to make a little comeback because he threw up zero after zero, and he gave us a little bit of momentum. It was a tall hill to climb and we started to climb because of what he did."
But on its 39-run day, Sam Houston piled on with a six-run eighth inning to put the 10-run rule in effect for a game that started 94 minutes late and pushed the Friday tournament nightcap into a start that was more than two hours later than scheduled.
Sam Houston's 22-run output was the most that GCU allowed since a 22-3 loss at New Mexico in 2017. The Bearkats' 24 hits were the most the Lopes had yielded since 2019 when Xavier collected 24 in a loss to the Lopes.
"We just had a bad weekend," said GCU junior designated hitter Tyler Wilson, who went 6 for 8 in the two tourney losses to finish with a .303 average. "I'm just really proud of this team. We didn't stop fighting. There's not much more you can ask for besides that. It's obviously not the way we wanted things to end, but I'm proud of the guys. I'm proud of the way we fought. We'll come back next year and get it."
The loss marked the likely end of a remarkable GCU career for junior Jacob Wilson, a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist who is projected by many to be selected high in the MLB Draft first round on July 9.The three-year starter went 1 for 5 on Friday to finish the season with a .417 batting average and just five strikeouts in 192 at bats, making him the hardest player to strike out in college baseball for a second consecutive season. The Lopes have won 80% of conference games since his junior class came aboard.
"It's definitely tough," said Jacob Wilson, who spent this season with his father, Jack, as a Lopes assistant coach. "We fought so hard throughout the entire season. We tried as hard as we could to win this thing and fell short. I'm always going to be proud of these guys for what they brought every single day, for everything they brought to me as a person and as a player. I'm really grateful to be part of this group. It didn't end our way, but I'll remember these memories, winning 14 straight and this squad."
Before packing up a dugout full of emotions, Wallis addressed his first team as head coach in the standard postgame on-field huddle, telling the Lopes, "Leave with your heads high and your chests out. We're the regular-season champions. We've accomplished some amazing things this season."
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Hewitt, Logan (4-1)
L: Young, Carter (3-3)
Batting:
2B: Janek, Walker 3 ; Loyd, Easton 1
3B: Tatom, Jake 2
HR: Janek, Walker 1
RBI: Redfield, Joe 1 ; Wishkoski, Justin 1 ; Chadwick, Clayton 2 ; Janek, Walker 7 ; Loyd, Easton 2 ; Jefferson, Myles 2 ; Contreras, Carlos 1 ; Tatom, Jake 5
Base Running:
RUNS: Redfield, Joe 3 ; Wishkoski, Justin 2 ; Davis, Tyler 1 ; Chadwick, Clayton 2 ; Janek, Walker 4 ; Loyd, Easton 1 ; Jefferson, Myles 3 ; Contreras, Carlos 3 ; Tatom, Jake 3
SB: Davis, Tyler 2
HBP: Redfield, Joe 1
Batting:
2B: Yorke, Zach 1 ; Wilson, Tyler 1 ; Gregory, Zack 2
RBI: Bush Jr., Homer 1 ; Verdusco, Cade 2 ; Buckley, Josh 1 ; Gregory, Zack 2
SF: Buckley, Josh 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Andeel, Maxwell 1 ; Wilson, Tyler 2 ; Verdusco, Cade 2 ; Buries, Elijah 1 ; Gregory, Zack 2
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
2
H
3
RBI
2
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
4
R
2
H
2
RBI
0
3b/lf
AB
4
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP
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