Clark's relief revives Lopes for rally, sweep

Sunday, March 30

Phoenix, Ariz.

12 p.m.

Grand Canyon

17-10, 5-1

Seattle U

9-18, 1-5

Seattle U

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Rachel Sollazzo

3/30/2025 4:29:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Yorke's tie-breaking home run gives GCU 3rd weekend win vs. Seattle U

By: Paul Coro

When the defense gets a three-and-out in football, a team can change the game in a hurry with its offense getting the ball back quickly.

When Grand Canyon baseball gets three outs in a hurry, the same goes for putting Lopes bats back at the plate in short time.

Propelled by the GCU Ballpark dugout juice of freshman Ross Clark's three no-hit relief innings, the Lopes turned around Sunday's series finale with Seattle U. GCU overcame a 4-0 hole with seven unanswered runs and won 7-5 for its second three-game sweep of the season.

"He changed the whole energy and the momentum of the game because he came in from the bullpen challenging hitters," Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis said of Clark. "In his first inning, I think he was 0-2 on every hitter. When you do that, it puts the opponent in a tough spot, and it leads to quick innings. He was able to control the time of possession."

If GCU was taking on football mentality, getting the bats back in action quickly had the effect of a blocked punt to flip a 4-0 deficit through four innings. Clark, the 6-foot-5 right-hander from La Brea, California, entered in the fifth inning and only needed 10 pitches to retire the Redhawks in order.

That sparked the Lopes (17-10, 5-1 WAC), even when graduate center fielder Eddy Pelc's deep drive to right-center field was chased down for a leadoff out. With two outs and one on, GCU freshman second baseman Scuba Smolinski recorded his first extra-base hit with a rally-fueling RBI double to left-center field.

With junior shortstop Emilio Barreras out injured the past few weeks, Smolinski started six time for the Lopes earlier this month but did not have a series at bat until the Fruita, Colorado, native started Sunday's game.

"I think he just he needed a little break to kind of get off his feet and maybe a little mental reset because he was facing some really quality arms for about six games in a row," Wallis said of Smolinski. "We got him back in in today, and he got a pitch up and hammered it into the gap for our first run. He did a nice job and he played great defense, so that was huge. The defense was huge, and then the hit was a bonus."

GCU continued its recent penchant for drawing walks with five more base on balls Sunday, when senior third baseman Eli Paton also was hit by pitches twice. The Lopes have drawn 36 walks since Tuesday's game at New Mexico for their largest four-game walk total in this GCU Division I era.

Lopes sophomore catcher Marcus Galvan's walk extended the fifth-inning opportunity for a breakthrough on Seattle U left-hander Kenny Ishikawa, a Japanese utility player who also bats leadoff for the Redhawks.

Topping off his 5-for-11, five-walk weekend series, GCU junior right fielder Josh Wakefield singled to score Smolinski and cut Seattle U's lead to 4-2. Sophomore left fielder Carson Ohland tied the game at 4-4 by smashing a 1-2 pitch off the left-field scoreboard for his first GCU extra-base hit.

Clark followed that with another perfect inning in the sixth, when he utilized a mix of 12 fastball and off-speed pitches. In the seventh inning, Clark yielded a one-out walk but escaped unharmed when that runner was stealing third and tried to score on a wild pitch. Lopes sophomore catcher Marcus Galvan gathered the ball at the backstop and threw to Clark for an easy, inning-ending tag at home, maintaining the 7-4 edge and dropping Clark's ERA to 3.29.

PHOENIX, AZ - MARCH 30: Grand Canyon University baseball defeats Seattle University 7-5 (Photo by: Rachel Sollazzo/GCU)

"Ross Clark, I can't say enough about him today," GCU junior first baseman Zach Yorke said. "He just absolutely carved. He came in on the bump, pounded strikes and he gave us the boost we needed."

With Ohland aboard on a one-out single, Yorke followed his 26th walk of the season in the fifth by knocking out the first pitch he saw in the seventh. Yorke said Seattle led him off with off-speed pitches on every series at bat but one. Even without getting all of it, Yorke hammered this offering over the right-field wall.

"I was kind of sitting on it," said Yorke, who went 7 for 14 with seven RBIs and five walks since Tuesday's game at New Mexico. "Wally told me before my bat, just get in my legs, see something up and drive it, and that's exactly what I did."

Yorke ranks 32nd nationally for walks and increased his on-base percentage to .504.

"He had a great plan at the plate," Wallis said of Yorke. :Great mental approach. He was focused on seeing something up in the zone. By that time in the series, Zach felt that they weren't going to blow a fastball by him, and he got a changeup up."

GCU sophomore shortstop Troy Sanders added an RBI single for a 7-4 lead, giving him a hit in each game of the series sweep.

The sweep started a started a stretch of eight games over 10 days with three styles of winning, from Friday night dominance to coming within an out of losing Saturday night to flipping momentum Sunday. The Lopes hit .299 in the series with eight doubles, a triple and two home runs.

"We need to get a lot better," Yorke said. "We can all work on our quality at bats and getting starters out of the game. We've faced some good lefties this season, and we've struggled a little bit.

"Sometimes, we come to the field, and we're surprised we're seeing a righty. Our coaches have done a great job of scheduling us some really good opponents, so that we're ready come the end of the season. It's a blessing in disguise how many lefties we're seeing. Toward the end of the season, it won't be surprising."

GCU Ballpark features high-profile visitors this week with No. 23 Arizona (20-7) at 6 p.m. Tuesday and Cal State Fullerton, whose eight-game winning streak ended Sunday, at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The Lopes leave Thursday for a weekend conference series at California Baptist, which has not lost a three-game series this season.

"We were able to do some things with our pitching that we like how we're set up, but we're playing great opponents," Wallis said. "UofA is tough. They're a top-25 team. Fullerton's playing really well, and California Baptist is playing well. It's going to be another great challenge.

"We want to be a better team after game 28 than we were 27, 29 after 28. And by the end of the year, wherever we are right now as a team, we just want to be better going into the end."