Upcoming Event: Baseball versus Cal State Fullerton on November 8, 2025 at 11 a.m.
Baseball
11 a.m.
vs Cal State Fullerton
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Friday, March 28
Phoenix, Ariz.
6 p.m.
Grand Canyon
15-10, 3-1
10
vs
0
Seattle U
9-16, 1-3
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
R
H
E
Seattle U
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
0
Grand Canyon
3
0
1
0
2
1
0
3
10
12
1
Photo by: Rachel Sollazzo
Lyon's gem leads Lopes to series-opening win
3/28/2025 9:14:00 PM | Baseball
In return to home, GCU wins via mercy rule against Seattle U
Behind a gem from junior righty Isaac Lyon, Grand Canyon opened a conference series against Seattle U with a 10-0 win in eight innings at GCU Ballpark.
GCU (15-10, 3-1 WAC) sewed up the victory in eight innings due to mercy rule, giving Lyon the complete game shutout. His outing was just the second scoreless start of eight or more innings in the last nine seasons for GCU, only joined by Connor Mattison's no-hitter from last season.
"I think that might have been the best start of his career," Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis said. "Everything was sharp. The fastball was moving, the slider, the cutter, the changeup. He was getting swing and miss on all four pitches, and he stayed strong in the eighth inning. He was still throwing 92 miles an hour. He's just been really good."
Lyon used an efficient 99 pitches to work through a career-high eight innings, and he did not face frequent traffic on the basepaths. Seattle U (9-16, 1-3 WAC) managed just four hits and two walks off of Lyon and only had one inning with multiple baserunners.
Lyon picked up his second victory of the season and lowered his ERA to 3.52.
"Every start's been really consistent," Wallis said. "Tonight, just every pitch had the great movement and was consistent in the strike zone. He's just putting together a great year."
GCU scored three runs in the first inning and didn't look back. All three runs came on a bases-clearing triple by senior left fielder Michael Diaz. With two outs in the inning, he lined a ball to right field and a dive attempt went awry to let the ball roll deep into the outfield grass.
The Lopes felt their offense kicked back into gear at the midway point of Tuesday's game at New Mexico, and the offensive surge continued on Friday. GCU has racked up 25 hits in its last 13 innings of baseball.
"We came out with some great intent," Wallis said. "I thought, overall, our at bats, we were on the offensive. We want to take our 'A' swing. Too many times (earlier in the nine-game road stretch), we weren't getting off our best swing. But tonight, even on some of our outs, it just felt like we were more locked in to getting off our best swing."
Senior third baseman Eli Paton led off the third inning with a home run to give GCU a 4-0 lead.
In the fifth, GCU scored a pair of runs after capitalizing on some free passes. Sophomore second baseman Billy Scaldeferri drew a bases-loaded walk and sophomore shortstop Troy Sanders grounded into a productive, run-scoring out.
Graduate center fielder Eddy Pelc expanded the lead to 7-0 in the sixth. He reached on a leadoff walk, moved to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by junior first baseman Zach Yorke.
The Lopes tallied three runs in the eighth to activate the mercy rule. A pinch-hitting Cannon Peery drove in a pair of runs on a double down the third base line, and Sanders scored Peery on a sacrifice fly.
GCU got off to a good start in the pursuit of its 17th consecutive WAC series victory.
"It was great to be back home," Wallis said. "We had two back-to-back long road trips and just being in the routine of being at home, practicing in your home yard snapped us back to life a little bit. We came out and and showed that. I thought yesterday we had a great day at practice and then we went out and played great today."
Junior right fielder Josh Wakefield continued a torrid offensive pace, going 3 for 4 with three stolen bases. In the first, second and fourth innings, he followed the same script of singling and swiping second base.
Wakefield had GCU's first three-steal game since 2016.
"When Wake's out there, he's just so fast," Wallis said. "He gets such good jumps. It would have to be the best base-stealing threat we've seen since HBJ (Homer Bush Jr.)"
The Lopes won via a shutout for the second time this season, exactly one month removed from their first shutout (Feb. 28 at Texas State).
GCU will look to capture the series on Saturday when it sends sophomore righty Garrett Ahern to the mound for a 6 p.m. first pitch.
GCU (15-10, 3-1 WAC) sewed up the victory in eight innings due to mercy rule, giving Lyon the complete game shutout. His outing was just the second scoreless start of eight or more innings in the last nine seasons for GCU, only joined by Connor Mattison's no-hitter from last season.
"I think that might have been the best start of his career," Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis said. "Everything was sharp. The fastball was moving, the slider, the cutter, the changeup. He was getting swing and miss on all four pitches, and he stayed strong in the eighth inning. He was still throwing 92 miles an hour. He's just been really good."
Lyon used an efficient 99 pitches to work through a career-high eight innings, and he did not face frequent traffic on the basepaths. Seattle U (9-16, 1-3 WAC) managed just four hits and two walks off of Lyon and only had one inning with multiple baserunners.
Lyon picked up his second victory of the season and lowered his ERA to 3.52.
"Every start's been really consistent," Wallis said. "Tonight, just every pitch had the great movement and was consistent in the strike zone. He's just putting together a great year."
GCU scored three runs in the first inning and didn't look back. All three runs came on a bases-clearing triple by senior left fielder Michael Diaz. With two outs in the inning, he lined a ball to right field and a dive attempt went awry to let the ball roll deep into the outfield grass.
The Lopes felt their offense kicked back into gear at the midway point of Tuesday's game at New Mexico, and the offensive surge continued on Friday. GCU has racked up 25 hits in its last 13 innings of baseball.
"We came out with some great intent," Wallis said. "I thought, overall, our at bats, we were on the offensive. We want to take our 'A' swing. Too many times (earlier in the nine-game road stretch), we weren't getting off our best swing. But tonight, even on some of our outs, it just felt like we were more locked in to getting off our best swing."
Senior third baseman Eli Paton led off the third inning with a home run to give GCU a 4-0 lead.
In the fifth, GCU scored a pair of runs after capitalizing on some free passes. Sophomore second baseman Billy Scaldeferri drew a bases-loaded walk and sophomore shortstop Troy Sanders grounded into a productive, run-scoring out.
Graduate center fielder Eddy Pelc expanded the lead to 7-0 in the sixth. He reached on a leadoff walk, moved to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by junior first baseman Zach Yorke.
The Lopes tallied three runs in the eighth to activate the mercy rule. A pinch-hitting Cannon Peery drove in a pair of runs on a double down the third base line, and Sanders scored Peery on a sacrifice fly.
GCU got off to a good start in the pursuit of its 17th consecutive WAC series victory.
"It was great to be back home," Wallis said. "We had two back-to-back long road trips and just being in the routine of being at home, practicing in your home yard snapped us back to life a little bit. We came out and and showed that. I thought yesterday we had a great day at practice and then we went out and played great today."
Junior right fielder Josh Wakefield continued a torrid offensive pace, going 3 for 4 with three stolen bases. In the first, second and fourth innings, he followed the same script of singling and swiping second base.
Wakefield had GCU's first three-steal game since 2016.
"When Wake's out there, he's just so fast," Wallis said. "He gets such good jumps. It would have to be the best base-stealing threat we've seen since HBJ (Homer Bush Jr.)"
The Lopes won via a shutout for the second time this season, exactly one month removed from their first shutout (Feb. 28 at Texas State).
GCU will look to capture the series on Saturday when it sends sophomore righty Garrett Ahern to the mound for a 6 p.m. first pitch.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lyon, Isaac (2-2)
L: Smith, Blake (0-3)
Batting:
2B: Harmon, Reese 1
Base Running:
HBP: Lopez, Sebastian 1
Batting:
2B: Peery, Cannon 1
3B: Diaz, Michael 1
HR: Paton, Eli 1
RBI: Yorke, Zach 1 ; Paton, Eli 1 ; Diaz, Michael 3 ; Peery, Cannon 2 ; Scaldeferri, Billy 1 ; Sanders, Troy 2
SF: Yorke, Zach 1 ; Sanders, Troy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wakefield, Josh 1 ; Pelc, Eddy 1 ; Yorke, Zach 2 ; Paton, Eli 3 ; Huff, Kade 1 ; Sanko, Jake 1 ; Peery, Cannon 1
SB: Wakefield, Josh 3
HBP: Paton, Eli 1 ; Scaldeferri, Billy 1
Game Leaders
AB
4
R
1
H
3
RBI
0
AB
5
R
0
H
2
RBI
0
AB
3
R
2
H
1
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
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