GCU's Barreras returns 'home' for NCAA regional

Growing up, Emilio Barreras pictured himself playing college baseball at Hi Corbett Field in the biggest moments.

Barreras' dream will be realized this weekend.

The NCAA tournament's Tucson Regional is bringing Barreras back to Hi Corbett Field. where the Grand Canyon starting shortstop and his family were once Wildcats baseball fans.

Emilio Barreras

"We used to be," Barreras said. "But now I think they're all Lopes, thankfully."

GCU plays regional host Arizona in a 6 p.m. game as part of a four-team, double-elimination bracket that also includes Dallas Baptist and West Virginia.

Barreras grew up an hour away from Hi Corbett Field in Casa Grande, which is located halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. The city is mostly Wildcats territory, but that devotion was even stronger for the Barreras family with most of his relatives having Tucson roots.

Visits to his grandparents' home, 10 minutes from Hi Corbett, often included attending an Arizona game before hitting I-10 back to Casa Grande.

"It's definitely going to be super special," said Barreras, whose Casa Grande friend Gil Luna pitched 2018-21 for Arizona. "I've already got a lot of messages from family and friends that they're going to come out and support me, and that means a lot. It's unique that my first regional is going to be at home.

"That was one of the schools that I really wanted to go to growing up, but I mean God's plan. I'm just excited to play at home, play in a regional and just enjoy every moment of it."

Emilio Barreras

Barreras was an ideal find for GCU, where the Vista Grande High School graduate became 2023 first-round draft pick Jacob Wilson's heir apparent last season as a freshman. The 6-footer filled in ably at shortstop when Wilson was injured, making only one error in conference play. Barreras started 32 games as a utility infielder with a .300-plus batting average until a late-season slump.

This season, Barreras went 11 for 64 to start the season, but he has pivoted permanently from there with a .389 batting average since March 22. The right-handed thrower/left-handed batter is the WAC's toughest batter to strike out, averaging one strikeout per 11.5 at bats. Barreras ranked ninth in the WAC for batting average during conference play, when he only made five errors in 113 fielding chances to repeat as a WAC All-Defensive Team selection.

In games against Arizona this season, Barreras went 0 for 3 when GCU lost the first meeting and 4 for 9 with four RBIs in the Lopes' two victories against the Wildcats. GCU became comfortable in Tucson, but Barreras knows the city and its baseball stadium even better, as does freshman infielder and Tucson Catalina Foothills High School graduate Troy Sanders.

After thinking their season ended with WAC Tournament elimination last week, the Lopes are riding a reprieve this week. They received the WAC automatic berth as the conference's regular-season champions because tournament champ Tarleton State's Division I transition-period status makes it ineligible for NCAA postseason

"We put a lot of pressure on ourselves going into last weekend," Barreras said. "Going into this weekend, the worst has already happened to us. We can really build off what happened, and I feel like it's going to translate to playing the way we play and surrendering to the outcome."

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GCU's Tucson Regional carries the third-highest average RPI ranking (45.3) of the NCAA tournament's 16 four-team regionals. It is one of four regional sites with three top-40 RPI teams.
D1Baseball's Mike Rooney: "Pac-12 regular-season and tournament champion hosted despite a No. 31 RPI, and the Wildcats were rewarded with the toughest regional field from top to bottom, with a No. 2 seed that had its own strong hosting case in Dallas Baptist, a No. 3 seed that could have been a 2 in West Virginia, and the toughest 4-seed in the field of 64 in Grand Canyon. It's anybody's ballgame, and it should make for compelling theater out West."
Lopes senior left fielder Tyler Wilson has a 25-game hitting streak, a GCU record that he set Saturday. Since starting the streak on April 9 vs. Arizona State, the WAC Player of the Year is 49 for 108 (.454).
GCU is one of seven teams that ranks in the national top 30 for batting average (23rd) and ERA (27th). The others are Charleston, Duke, East Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and UC Irvine.
The Lopes are among 37 programs nationally to reach three NCAA tournaments in the past four seasons.
GCU's nonconference strength of schedule ranked 18th in the nation this year.
The Lopes have a former Arizona pitcher on their staff in second-year pitching coach Nathan Bannister, who was on the Wildcats' 2016 national runner-up as a senior ace with a 12-2 record and a 2.59 ERA. He posted a 3.22 career ERA for Arizona.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Emilio Barreras

Troy Sanders

Jacob Wilson

Tyler Wilson

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