Completed Event: Baseball versus Arizona on April 28, 2026 , Win , 9, to, 8
Baseball
vs Arizona
W 9-8
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Next big game pits GCU vs. West Virginia in regional
6/1/2024 12:29:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro
Lopes try to stay in winner's bracket in Tucson with Watkins starting
NCAA tournament | Tucson Regional
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(3) WEST VIRGINIA
MOUNTAINEERS (34-22)
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(4) GRAND CANYON
LOPES (35-23)
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| LHP Tyler Switalski (4-2, 5.94) vs. RHP Hunter Watkins (2-1, 3.40) Live Stats • Watch on ESPN+ |
TUCSON, Ariz. – On Friday night, Grand Canyon was a baseball program looking for its first Division I regional win.
On Saturday night, the Lopes stand two consecutive wins away from a Super Regional spot and another college baseball stratosphere.
That will require GCU following up the biggest win of its Division I era with another game that looms as the biggest – a 7 p.m. Tucson Regional winner's bracket matchup against West Virginia at Hi Corbett Field.
The winner of Saturday night's game on ESPN+ will advance to the Sunday 6 p.m. game, the first of two chances to win the double-elimination regional. The loser will play against Saturday afternoon's Arizona-Dallas Baptist winner at noon Sunday to try to reach that 6 p.m. game.
"We told our guys, 'Just be prepared for anything because this is not a traditional three-game series,' " GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "We learned that a lot in our conference tournament. It is not a three-game series. We're going to play it differently. This is a tournament."That is why Wallis used his top two rotation starters, sophomores Grant Richardson and Isaac Lyon, to knock off No. 13 Arizona 9-4 in front of a record Hi Corbett Field crowd for Wildcats baseball (8,798).
Regional No. 3 seed West Virginia (34-22) also used its ace, Derek Chase, to beat regional No. 2 seed Dallas Baptist on Friday but did not need to use its bullpen in a 4-1 win.
"They're the Grand Canyon of Texas," West Virginia coach Randy Mazey said of Dallas Baptist. "Because Grand Canyon is the same way. People who don't know a lot about college baseball hear Grand Canyon and they're like, 'You should beat those guys.' It's not that easy. You have to play really well to beat these teams. Everybody is talking about this regional being the toughest one. I literally think all four of these teams are very capable of winning this regional."
That played out Friday night when GCU and Evansville were the NCAA tournament's only regional fourth seeds of 16 to win an opener.
The Lopes will turn Saturday night to freshman Hunter Watkins, a 6-foot-8 right-hander, who has a 1.77 ERA since April 20. Watkins, 2-1 with a 3.40 ERA for the season, will make his fourth start against West Virginia left-hander Tyler Switalski in his 13th start.Switalski is 6-4 with a 5.94 ERA this season and has not pitched since the regular-season finale against TCU on May 18, when he shut out the Horned Frogs for five innings.
The Mountaineers have endured an injury-riddled season, which included junior shortstop and first-round prospect J.J. Wetherholt missing time.
"He creates a presence that makes people pitch differently," West Virginia head coach Randy Maxey said of Wetherholt. "He makes the offense go whether he gets hits or not."
Wetherholt is batting .349 with eight home runs and 30 RBI in 32 games. He and his teammates are playing to extend the career of Maxey, who will retire after guiding the Mountaineers to consecutive regionals for the first time since 1963-64.
"The past three years have been the best years of my life," Weatherholt said. "It's really cool to play for somebody that you really want to win for, and he's that guy. It's been amazing."
Like GCU, West Virginia was ousted from its conference tournament on May 23 for an eight-day break before Friday's regional openers in Tucson. The Mountaineers endured a full day of travel delays to get to Tucson.
"The more you can throw on our plate, the better off we are," Maxey said. "Yes, travel issues. But, yes, advantage Mountaineers."
West Virginia ranks 192nd nationally in batting average (.271) and 51st in ERA (4.96). GCU is one of seven teams nationally to be in the top 30 of each category – 23rd for batting average at .310 and 26th for ERA at 4.60.
The Lopes reached base 17 times Friday night to beat the Wildcats for the third time this season, with Lopes junior designated Michael Diaz being hit twice and GCU drawing seven walks off an Arizona pitching staff that ranks first in the nation for fewest walks.GCU also gathered eight hits with two-hit performances by senior right fielder Eddy Pelc (four RBIs), sophomore first baseman Zach Yorke and senior left fielder Tyler Wilson, who set the tone with his 17th home run of the season on the game's second pitch. It extended the WAC Player of the Year's GCU-record hitting streak to 26 games.
"We've been mentioning that a lot this week: we're playing with house money," Lopes senior right fielder Eddy Pelc said. "There definitely was some familiarity with playing UofA, so we had a ton of confidence coming in. We were comfortable, but we knew it would be a dogfight."
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