GCU falls in see-saw midweek matchup

Tuesday, March 25

Albuquerque, N.M.

5 p.m. (MST)

Grand Canyon

14-10

New Mexico

13-11

Grand Canyon

New Mexico

3/25/2025 8:58:00 PM | Baseball

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Lopes offense awakens; GCU commits untimely errors in road trip conclusion

By: Josh Hauser

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Putting an end to a season-long nine-game road stretch, Grand Canyon fell at New Mexico 12-10 in a back-and-forth battle on Tuesday night.

Games played at the high altitude of Santa Ana Star Field this season have averaged 20 combined runs, and the Lopes and Lobos went beyond even that high bar.

GCU (14-10) snapped a 10-game streak of single-digit hits in a big way, going for a season-high 16. The Lopes also drew eight walks and two hit batsman in compiling their 10-run effort. Untimely miscues cost GCU, however, as three errors led to seven unearned runs and a late New Mexico comeback.

Lopes junior first baseman Zach Yorke was one of a handful of impactful offensive performers. He logged three hits, including a go-ahead three-run home run in the seventh inning to stake the Lopes to a 10-7 lead.

GCU graduate center fielder Eddy Pelc had a breakout game from the plate, tallying four hits and two RBIs with two runs scored. In his second start as a Lope, junior catcher Luke Moeller had his first three GCU hits and his first RBI.

Moeller got the Lopes on the board with an RBI single in the second before the Lobos responded with solo shots in the second and third innings to tie and take the lead.

GCU want on a three-inning scoring barrage, tallying four runs in the fifth, two in the sixth and three in the seventh.

Pinch-hitting sophomore Cannon Peery had the big hit of the fifth, a two-run double to put GCU in front 5-2.

GCU surrendered the first of two five-run Lobo rallies to trail 7-5, but immediately re-tied the game with two in the sixth inning. Pelc tripled to drive in a run and came into score on an infield ground ball.

Yorke's three-run blast in the seventh gave GCU a three-run lead, but New Mexico's second five-run inning put the game away.

All five of the Lobos' runs in the fifth inning were unearned as a Lopes error extended the inning. The tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh were also unearned from another GCU infield error.

Junior left-hander Justin Hanson was GCU's pitching staff highlight, retiring the Lobos in order in the eighth with a strikeout in his Lopes debut.

GCU returns to Phoenix and will finally end a stretch of 19 days between home games by hosting Seattle U for a three-game series that begins at 6 p.m. Friday.