Yorke's record HRs, Key's start wear down Arizona

Tuesday, May 6

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

28-20

Arizona

33-15

Arizona

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Sebastian Molinar

5/6/2025 11:00:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Lopes tally 5th win vs. Wildcats, 7th win vs. top-25 opponent in past 2 seasons

By: Paul Coro

The list of college baseball teams that have beaten Arizona five times in the past two seasons is as short as the list of Grand Canyon players with more than 30 home runs in the Lopes' Division I era.

GCU junior first baseman Zach Yorke became the latter Tuesday night, belting two home runs in the GCU Ballpark season finale to make the former fact come true. With the Lopes' 5-2 win against the 22nd-ranked Wildcats, GCU is 5-2 against Arizona over the past two seasons.

The Wildcats are 9-2 in midweek games this season with the only losses coming at GCU. Tuesday night marked the Lopes' seventh win against a top-25 opponent in the past two seasons.

The Lopes (28-20) built off Sunday's Senior Day victory on the power of Yorke's 30th and 31st career home runs, which also tied Jacob Wilson's GCU D-I era RBIs record (155), and the season-best pitching performance of starting southpaw Chance Key.

The junior from Iowa tossed a season-high six innings, retiring nine consecutive batters over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Key turned it over to a three-man bullpen that shut out Arizona on two hits over the final three innings.

Wallis and Yorke

Arizona scored a run in the first and seventh innings with GCU responding each time with a two-run bottom half. The tone-setter was Yorke watching Wildcats starting right-hander Bryce McKnight go heavy on change-ups to the first two batters before he ripped a 1-2 change-up that lined over the tall, right-center field wall.

"I kind of knew he was going to come back to it (the change-up), so I got up in the box a little bit and sat on a change-up and put a good swing on it," Yorke said.

That home run broke the GCU D-I era record held by three Lopes, the last being Tayler Aguilar, the left-handed hitting slugger before Yorke took that role.

"He hit that ball really hard," GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said of Yorke's first-inning home run. "It had great backspin on it. We actually talk about that. We want to hit 2-irons — the ball that is backspun and keeps carrying out of the yard."

Chance Key

Key kept that 2-1 lead until the seventh inning by making an in-game adjustment and turning more efficient as he went deeper. He threw 18 pitches in the fifth and sixth innings combined.

"This time of year, it's always going to be about team baseball, but you need guys to step forward and Chance Key did that," Wallis said. "That was the best he's pitched all year. He gave us a shot to win."

Key transferred last summer from Des Moines Area Community College and earned a GCU starting rotation spot, but he had not thrown a quality outing since March 23 at Abilene Christian.

The way Key commanded and mixed pitches Tuesday night projected well for the staff's WAC Tournament depth. Key used his fastball and change-up mix, slipping in sliders and two-seam fastballs to left-handed hitters.

"Just filling up the zone," Key said. "That's what me and Banni (GCU pitching coach Nathan Bannister) have been talking about these past few weeks. The results haven't been great in the past couple outings, but them having the trust in me let me be able to go out there and compete."

GCU junior reliever Cam Cunnings left the bases loaded in the seventh inning, when Arizona had tied the game 2-2 on catcher Adonys Guzman's leadoff home run. To escape, Cunnings struck out one of Arizona's top hitters, Mason White, and Lopes junior catcher Luke Moeller picked up the dropped third strike to dive ball-first to home plate and end the inning on a force out.

Josh Wakefield

The Lopes took the lead back in the bottom of the seventh without getting a hit. GCU scored twice on a walk, two errors, a stolen base and a wild pitch.

"One of the biggest things in college baseball is momentum, and keeping it in your dugout," Yorke said. "Our dugout brought it today, and we brought the energy from Pitch 1. Chance got after it on the mound and absolutely shoved. Easily his best outing of the year, and that's what really got everybody fired up."

GCU hard-throwing right-hander Jace Smith added a shutout inning to his late-season return when Lopes junior shortstop Emilio Barreras knocked down a hot smash and gathered it for 6-4 double play with a bullet throw to first base.

"It was a huge momentum swing," Wallis said.

Yorke tacked on insurance to the GCU lead and his home run record when he led off the eighth inning by crushing a 400-plus-foot rainbow to right-center field again. Yorke's career-high 12th homer of the season put the Lopes ahead 5-2 and tied him with Wilson for GCU D-I era RBIs record (155) in 23 fewer at bats than Wilson had.

"Jacob's the best player ever to come out of this school and one of the best players in MLB right now, so it's really special being tied with him for anything," said Yorke, who had his first two-home run game since last season at Utah Valley.

GCU junior sidearm closer Walter Quinn notched his ninth save as Arizona finished the game with five hits, which tied the Wildcats' third-lowest total of the season.

"Everyone threw the ball tonight with great conviction," Wallis said. "All four guys that were in there made big pitches."

The Lopes became the only team besides Baylor and Texas Tech to beat Arizona (33-14) twice this season.

GCU will watch the WAC pennant race unfold this weekend, when it has its conference idle week while sitting a half-game behind conference leader Sacramento State. The Lopes play at Stanford this weekend and at Arizona State next Tuesday before finishing the regular season and WAC play at Tarleton State.

"We're going to go and try to get better," Wallis said. "We get to sit back and see how things shake out and look forward to the final weekend. We know we're going to be in the mix. Whatever happens this week, we should be in the mix to win the league or to be one of the top two and get a couple byes."