Wilson grand slam ties game before Lopes fall

Sunday, February 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

5-3

Nebraska

4-3

Nebraska

Grand Canyon

2/25/2024 3:22:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

GCU scored 7 unanswered after trailing 8-1; Huskers win with 2 unearned runs in 8th

By: Josh Hauser

Grand Canyon used seven unanswered runs to force a fifth-inning tie behind a grand slam from senior left fielder Tyler Wilson, but Nebraska snuck out with a win by plating two unearned runs in the eighth to win 10-8 at GCU Ballpark on Sunday afternoon.

The Huskers (4-3) scored one run in the first, one run in the second and racked up six unearned runs in the third inning to build an 8-1 lead. GCU (5-3) erased the deficit with seven consecutive runs capped off by Wilson's second career grand slam.

"Great swing," Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis said. "We talked to him about staying short in big RBI situations. He did it. He hit the home run, but you could tell by his swing he wasn't trying to hit a home run. He was just trying to take a short, aggressive swing to the baseball."

Wilson was ejected by home plate umpire Jason Rogers for his flip of the bat down the first-base line, a ruling that was met with the ire of national college baseball media.

With no outs, the bases were loaded up for Wilson after a pair of singles, a walk and a hit batsman.

GCU had chipped away at Nebraska's big lead in earlier innings. After senior center fielder Cade Verdusco tripled in the first inning, he waltzed home on a productive RBI ground out from sophomore first baseman Zach Yorke to plate GCU's first run.

In the third inning, Yorke singled up the middle to drive in another run.

In the fourth inning, junior catcher Alton Gyselman singled in a run to cut the deficit to 8-3.

The grand slam was GCU's last scoring of the afternoon. Nebraska snuck across two runs in the eighth inning on a passed ball and a steal of home to grab a 10-8 lead.

"The thing that we didn't like was after (the grand slam) tied it, we worked really hard and took great swings to tie the game," Wallis said. "Then it felt like everyone was trying to do it with one swing instead of staying with the approach that got us back in the game. We'll fix that."

Cumulatively, eight of the Huskers' 10 runs were unearned. GCU committed three errors, including an errant throw in the third inning that would have been the third out before any of Nebraska's six runs scored that frame.

"Every mistake we made today is fixable," Wallis said. "Some of it is the details of the game, we had some freshmen in there that just got sped up a bit, it's small details that we have to clean up so we can win ballgames like these. The effort was there. I'll take the effort that we gave. If we show up every day with that same attitude and effort, I'm really optimistic about what this team is going to be as we keep rolling here."

GCU bounced back from losing the first two games of the series by a combined tally of 18-3 to make things more competitive with a 15-15 run tally in the second half of the series. The Huskers left Phoenix by winning three of four.

"That's exactly what we can take out of this is that we showed that we're going to fight," Wallis said. "The first two games didn't go our way. We showed up Game 3 and we fought. We get down early, we make some mistakes, but we don't flinch. We get back in it.

"Unfortunate that we didn't finish the job, because obviously we wanted to get the W today. But the team did show a lot of fight. If we continue to fight like that all year, we're going to have a great season."

After struggling to end Nebraska's six-run third, sophomore pitcher Isaac Lyon threw three scoreless innings. He gave way to right-handers Walter Quinn and Shawn Triplett who did not allow an earned run in three combined innings of work, although Quinn was handed the tough-luck loss.

Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark hosted another large crowd on Sunday with 2,724 fans in attendance. The four-game series saw 10,654 fans cumulatively. At least 2,000 fans have attended all six of GCU's home games.

GCU played eight games in the first 10 days of the 2024 season and emerges with a 5-3 record and wins over Georgetown, USC, BYU, Ohio State and Nebraska. The Lopes get a reprieve with four days off before beginning a three-game set at UTSA on Friday.