WAC dominance continues with 4th straight title

Saturday, May 11

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

29-23, 15-11

Abilene Christian

33-18, 21-5

Abilene Christian

Grand Canyon

2024 gcu baseball wac regular-season champions

Photo by: Jack Gilday

5/11/2024 10:28:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Group of 6 4th-year Lopes completes sweep of career regular-season championships

By: Josh Hauser

Championships have become a regularity for Grand Canyon Baseball, and a win on Saturday night ensured that the Lopes will add a fourth consecutive regular-season championship to Brazell Field's right-field wall.

The Lopes (32-18, 21-5 WAC) won their 10th consecutive game, their 14th consecutive WAC series and their fourth consecutive WAC regular-season championship with a 3-2 win over Abilene Christian (29-22, 15-11 WAC) on Saturday night.

"The first goal was let's get into this top two because that's a big advantage for the tournament," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "And then obviously we wanted to be outright. We were able to do it both on the same night."

Part of GCU's formula to clinching an outright championship on Saturday night included winning its own game. But the Lopes also needed help from Tarleton State, who persevered through several hours of rain delays to beat Utah Valley once in a Saturday doubleheader. Tarleton State also aided GCU in winning last year's regular-season title.

The last four times the Lopes won an outright regular-season championship, it came down to the last game in conference play. In 2024, GCU did it with four WAC games remaining.

"It's a little bit of a surreal feeling," Wallis said. "I don't know if we've ever won the conference this early."

GCU's business-like reaction — a mild-mannered photo opportunity down the left-field line — showed the Lopes have more items remaining on their season's agenda.

"I was happy with the guys' reaction," Wallis said. "Obviously this was our goal. But I don't think anybody's just satisfied with winning the regular-season title. We've got five more games to prepare for the tournament championship now. That's our next goal is play every game with, in mind, that we're going for the tournament championship."

GCU has not only claimed four consecutive regular-season crowns, it has won six of the last seven and seven of the 10 since joining the conference. The Lopes have built the WAC's longest streak of consecutive regular-season titles since Rice won nine in a row from 1997 to 2005.

"Grand Canyon has a great tradition," Wallis said. "President (Brian) Mueller gives us everything we need to compete at a really high level. That started when Coach (Andy) Stankiewicz got here. I was lucky to jump on board a couple years in, and we just started to build this thing.

"Now we've got a great group of seniors that have done this now for the fourth time. We've added some transfers that are really good. We've added some young arms that are really good. It's just kind of snowballed. We're trying to keep this thing rolling for a long time."

Six fourth-year Lopes completed the career sweep of regular-season titles: Dustin Crenshaw, Tyler Wilson, Cade Verdusco, Elijah Buries, Carter Young and Bryan Webb.

An outright championship comes with additional meaning this season due to the format of the WAC Tournament, where the top two seeds get double byes into the quarterfinals and need to just win three games consecutively to snatch the conference's automatic bid.

Saturday's win was not as glamorous as the previous nine games of the winning streak which had come by an average of 8.8 runs. Of the 17 half innings played, only two featured scoring. GCU's lone scoring inning happened to outdo Abilene Christian's lone scoring inning 3-2.

The Wildcats jumped on the Lopes with a two-run first inning. But GCU starting pitcher Isaac Lyon locked in and pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings following the first-inning blip. The sophomore righty scattered nine hits and earned his sixth win of the season.

"Isaac's got three pitches he can throw for strikes," Wallis said. "He adjusted and he went out and put up 5 1/3 scoreless and gave us a chance to win the game. He did a great job minimizing and then got us five zeros in a row.

GCU's first hit did not come until the fifth inning, but it immediately started a rally. A leadoff double by junior designated hitter Beau Ankeney set the stage for three straight RBIs. Senior right fielder Eddy Pelc hit an RBI single, senior catcher Alton Gyselman hit an RBI single and sophomore shortstop Emilio Barreras produced an RBI ground out.

The Lopes went from no hits to a 3-2 lead in a span of five plate appearances.

"We found a way to get it done," Wallis said. "That's what I told the team after the game. That's the sign of a really good team. We didn't have our best night, it wasn't pretty, but we just found a way to win. We all pulled together and found a way to win. We'll take it. All the numbers probably suggest that this was their game. But we found a way to get it, and that's what good teams do."

On top of Lyon's successful start, Gyselman and junior pitcher Walter Quinn played big parts in the winning effort.

Gyselman threw out three runners on the basepaths. After a second-inning leadoff single, he picked the runner off first base. Gyselman caught a runner stealing to end the third. In the seventh, Abilene Christian tried to sneak a runner home on a first-and-third play, but his bluff throw to second allowed him to pick a runner off third base.

"He likes to show (his arm) off," Wallis said. "We call him Yadier Gyselman. He can really really throw back there. A couple huge plays. One throwing a guy out stealing. And then the big first-and-third play. He just came up firing to third base and got their guy. That was a huge momentum play right there."

Quinn was called upon for two innings of relief work, protecting just a one-run lead. He emerged from the outing with his first career save after striking out five of the seven batters he faced.

"His progression has been amazing," Wallis said. "He came to us out of high school as an over-the-top right hander and did not make the team his first year. Went to the club team and reinvented himself, started dropping down. We said, 'This guy might have something.' Every good college team usually has a guy from the side that can come in and pitch a lot and get outs from a different look. Tonight it was him closing it out. How about that. He went from the club team to closing out an outright WAC championship."

Quinn lowered his season ERA to 2.39 over 19 relief appearances.

GCU concludes its home schedule on Sunday, where it looks for a third consecutive WAC sweep. The Lopes will honor 12 seniors in an 11:30 a.m. ceremony before a 12 p.m. Mother's Day first pitch.