Hot start flips to end on loss in 4-game series win

Sunday, February 23

Phoenix, Ariz.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

5-3

Rutgers

3-4

Rutgers

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Nate Cochran

2/23/2025 5:30:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Box Score

GCU led 6-1 with Pelc's 3rd home run in 2 days; Barreras takes average to .500

By: Paul Coro

Even in a four-game series that it already had clinched, Grand Canyon started stronger Sunday than it had in the first three wins.

Not being able to finish strongly kept GCU from its fifth consecutive win in seven days against a Big Ten opponent. The Lopes squandered a 6-1 lead through four innings in the series finale, when Rutgers unleashed an 17-run onslaught over the final innings to take its first series win at GCU Ballpark.

The Lopes' offense stayed hot, collecting 11 hits and seven walks but going through a pop-up stretch that quelled comeback hopes.

"We did a lot of great things over the entire weekend, so having this one get away from us like it did leaves you hungry," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. "You want to avoid the feeling of being disappointed because you took three of four and that's what the goal is and is really hard to do. We're looking at this as an opportunity for how are we going to respond from a game we kind of let the lead slip away mentally."

GCU (5-3) posted double-digit hits for the fifth consecutive game, something last season's team did no do until March. Since the Monday win against Nebraska, the Lopes are hitting .356 over five games, including several standout Rutgers series performances:

Junior shortstop Emilio Barreras went 9 for 15 and is hitting .500.
Junior first baseman Zach Yorke went 4 for 9 with eight walks.
Graduate center fielder Eddy Pelc (three home runs), sophomore left fielder Cannon Peery (5 for 11) and senior right fielder Michael Diaz (5 for 12) broke out of slow starts to the season.

"I'm not trying to do too much," Barreras said. "I'm not trying to go up there and hit for power. Obviously, it's really nice to smash the ball, but you've got to understand your identity. I have a good understanding right now. and I'm just running with the good things that are happening personally, but I wish we came through today."

The Lopes appeared headed that way when Pelc rocketed his third home run in two days – a 398-foot, third-inning shot to right-center field after he had worked a 1-2 count to a full count.

That 3-1 lead stretched to 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth when senior third baseman Ei Paton added a two-run home run to right field, and the Lopes tacked on a run via walks and wild pitches.

At that point, GCU junior left-hander Chance Key was cruising in his second start through four innings. His go-to sinker help get 11 of the first 12 Rutgers outs on grounders.

Key, a transfer from Des Moines Area Community College in Iowa, had thrown only 36 pitches until he was tagged for a seven-run fifth inning. An error and a walk started the inning, and it was still only 6-2 with the bases loaded and one out when he missed on a full-count pitch to walk in a run.

Rutgers followed with three consecutive hits for an 8-6 lead.

"He was cruising," Wallis said. "He hit a little bit of a wall. He's built up to go over 70 pitches. But once that inning started going long, I think he just lost his legs a little bit."

The Lopes tightened the margin to 8-7 on Peery's RBI sacrifice fly, but Rutgers followed with a four-run sixth inning to lead 12-7. While the Lopes were shut out for the final four innings, the Scarlet Knights scored 10 unanswered runs with the help of GCU physical and mental errors on defense.

"That's a good hitting team, and they hit some balls around the yard, but the mental mistakes were the ones we talk about to play good baseball," Wallis said. "We broke down from playing good baseball, and then we got frustrated. Once we lost the lead, I felt like we were just so frustrated that we started coming out of character from what we had done. We were down one, but we were playing like we were down more than that."

Playing teams with strong offensive reputations in Vanderbilt, San Diego State, Austin Peay, Nebraska and Rutgers, GCU took a staff ERA of 4.50 into Sunday's series finale.

GCU needed a tiebreaking, eighth-inning run to win the series opener and rallied to beat Rutgers in each of Saturday's doubleheader games before losing a 6-1 lead Sunday.

"It's a tough thing to go through because we really wanted to sweep, but learning what happened today will come through sooner or later," Barreras said. "It's just a focus thing. I don't think we were as focused as yesterday and Friday. This will definitely be a lesson and it'll help us out."

The Lopes will work out in Phoenix on Tuesday and Wednesday before taking their first road trip of the season to Texas State, where they will play a three-game weekend series against a program that won the 2022 Sun Belt title.