New team's competitive ways form in jobs battles

Friday, February 13

Phoenix, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Northeastern

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Photo by: Bryce Fairchild/GCU

2/12/2026 5:03:00 PM | Baseball, Paul Coro

GCU opens season Friday night vs. Northeastern with strong pitching, defense

By: Paul Coro

Grand Canyon baseball is competitive, by nature.

It can be seen in the program's results, particularly three NCAA regional qualifiers in the 2020s, and in ambitious scheduling. The Lopes open their season at 6 p.m. Friday with another GCU Ballpark Opening Night headliner in visiting Northeastern, last season's national winning percentage leader and one of the Lopes' 11 top-100 nonconference opponents this season.

But the competition is something GCU has been accustomed to seeing on Brazell Field since fall ball began.

Gregg Wallis

With most of last season's starting lineup and pitching rotation changed, the Lopes pursued roles daily with the fervor of a postseason team trying to survive and advance.

"The best part about so many new faces and so many unsettled position battles is the competition's been great," said Lopes fourth-year head coach Gregg Wallis, who is in his 13th year on the GCU baseball staff. "Every day is a game day.

"Last weekend, guys knew it was maybe the final, real chance before the season starts to stand out. It felt like regular-season games. You don't usually get that this late. Most of the time, we're ready to play someone else. We're practicing hard because we have so many good players who we could play. A lot of guys are fighting for innings, fighting for roles. I don't see that stopping any time soon."

Opening the season with MLB Desert Invitational games against Northeastern, Penn State (1 p.m. Saturday at Salt River Fields) and Nebraska (5:30 p.m. Sunday at Sloan Park) and a four-game home series against Oklahoma State will start to sort out the mix of returning standouts, improved returnees and 23 newcomers.

Starting with 6-foot-6 junior right-hander Garrett Ahern taking the mound Friday night, the Lopes believe in their pitching and defense to allow for a bevy of offensive options to unfold in their first Mountain West season.

"We have so many guys that are really good," Wallis said. "They just haven't broke out yet. That's going to be the exciting thing. No one really knows about them now. It could take some time. I'm not saying we're going to step on the field and have nine breakout Jacob Wilson stories, but we've got a lot of potential. We have a lot of hungry guys that are good baseball players. It'll be fun to see it evolve."

Lineup

GCU appears to have the strongest tandem it has stocked at catcher, where graduate transfer Mito Perez joins 2025 starter Marcus Galvan. Perez, who hit .306 at Tarleton State last season, is showing the defensive talent David Avitia once gave the Lopes and adding an offensive uptick

"Mito's everything we thought he'd be, and then maybe more," Wallis said. "He's offensive. He's our best base-runner. He's going to hit two or three (in the lineup) for us, and he's a lockdown catcher. He loves to throw and block. He's a leader. We're very, very fortunate that we were able to bring him over."

Galvan, a junior, has returned with a stronger arm after starting 41 games last season, when he hit .264 with 11 RBIs.

The right side of the infield, with in-state products Cannon Peery and Troy Sanders, combined for 91 starts last season.

Peery, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound junior, settles in at first base, where he made 12 of his starts in a season that he had GCU's third-highest batting average (.317). Peery doubled every 10.4 at bats, the highest doubles rate since Cuba Bess in 2019.

"More experience, more power and kind of good athleticism over there at first," Wallis said.

Sanders, who had been hurt in the offseason, is immersed in a battle at second base with Northwestern transfer Vince Bianchina, a switch-hitting, strong-armed graduate student who redshirted last season after being the Wildcats' starting third baseman in 2024.

The GCU coaches challenged Sanders' hitting approach this offseason after hitting .289 last season with a strikeout every six at bats.

"Troy's average was fine, but the overall offensive package was just OK," Wallis said. "The on-base percentage was not good. Too many strikeouts to walks. So we've challenged him to become a complete hitter as a junior, and he's taken to that in the limited at bats we've seen. His defense is game-changing. He's as good as it gets at second base athletically."

Sanders can also play shortstop, but Tennessee and Arizona State transfer Camden Bates is holding down that spot. After having 14 at bats over two seasons, the junior from Washington, Oklahoma, will get his chance for GCU.

"We're seeing why he was recruited to Tennessee out of high school," Wallis said. "When he got to us, he hadn't played in two years. He didn't play at Tennessee, although he won a national championship there. Great leadership, great habits, great kid. Then he got hurt at ASU. So he came in hungry, but he was a bit behind from two years of not playing. We started to see bits and pieces in the fall. In January, we started to say the package is coming together. He's looked electric at shortstop at times."

GCU Baseball Practice on October 10, 2025 at 2pm.

GCU Baseball Practice on October 10, 2025 at 2pm.

As with Bienchina at second base, freshman Austin Owens of Walnut, California, is a capable starting option at shortstop.

"Austin Owens is an absolute stud, and if it wasn't for Bates being good and that experience factor, Owens is ready to play shortstop right now," said Wallis, who is reminded of former UC Irvine All-American and current head Ben Orloff when he watches Owens.

Sophomore Jake Sanko went 1 for 11 as a GCU freshman when injuries slowed him out of Sandra Day O'Connor High School in Phoenix. But he has earned this season's starting job at third base, where junior returnee Billy Scaldeferri and freshman Jose Lopez III of Miami also are options.

"Jake's been impressive," Wallis said. "He's our best raw athlete. We knew that coming out of high school. All the new testing metrics show that. He probably vert (vertical jump) matches some of our basketball guys. Incredible athletic ability and strength. He's really kind of putting it together."

In the outfield, GCU will open the season without sophomore Gunnar Penzkover because of health reasons but still has fortified defensively with Kentucky transfer Griffin Cameron in center field and redshirt freshman Max Charles in right field.

Cameron, a junior from Lexington, Kentucky, made 20 starts and 44 appearances while hitting .232 with nine stolen bases last season for the Wildcats, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

"He's kind of a table setter with good, tough at bats," Wallis said. "He's going to make the plays. The moments aren't going to be too big for him. I think he's just kind of a classic top-of-the-lineup, old-school guy. I don't know if he's going to be hitting a ton of balls over the fence, but you're going to see him fight at the plate and put the ball in play."

Charles gained notoriety locally at Peoria Liberty High School as a switch-hitter and switch-pitcher who spent his senior prep season at IMG Academy in Florida. After taking an injury redshirt last season at GCU, Charles has locked in on throwing right in the outfield and developing a hitting approach that is dangerous when he puts balls in play. Wallis said having Charles in right field is like having a second center fielder.

"Max has come a long way," Wallis said. "He was a big recruit who originally committed to LSU. He missed a lot of valuable development time last year and was a bit behind offensively in the fall. He's so athletic that he's caught up in January. He'll still need time. You'll see some things that hopefully are incredible. And you're going to see some things that maybe look like a first-time starter. The upside ability is is pretty special."

While senior Dominic Chacon will be a staple at designated hitter after missing last season, the left field job is wide open with four candidates, including a DH option in the powerful freshman bat of Tanner Johns of Las Vegas.

Senior Cael Boever gives GCU a steady, experienced influence in left field after starting nine games and making 17 appearances last season with a .447 on-base percentage. Sophomore Jarret Nielsen, a Hawaii transfer, brings athleticism while 6-foot-4 Dillon Anderson, a Fullerton College transfer, is intriguing as a left-handed power threat.

Pitching

The defensive nature of the lineup backs up the optimism GCU has its pitching staff in Nathan Bannister's fourth year as Lopes pitching coach.

Ahern, from crosstown Campo Verde High School in Gilbert, fits the Friday night ace model after starting each of the Lopes' 15 weekends last season. He struck out 83 batters in 76 1/3 innings last season and boasts the fifth-best strikeout rate (9.8 per nine innings) in GCU's Division I history. His fastball has touched 95 mph and sits in the low 90s.

"He had huge bright spots, and then some first-time starter moments," Wallis said. "He could look as good as anyone. Against Texas Tech, he carved them up. And then teams made some adjustments, and he wasn't necessarily armed yet to adjust back.

Now, he has a three-pitch mix and his velo (velocity) has been up early."

GCU Baseball Practice on October 10, 2025 at 2pm.

The Saturday starting spot also has been settled on 6-3 junior right-hander Nicholas Robb, who transferred from UT Arlington. He relied heavily on a sinkerball last season to suit the Mavericks' home park but has expanded his repertoire under Bannister.

"We almost treated him like he was one of our junior college recruits," Wallis said. "We didn't necessarily care about his numbers (4-4, 5.54 ERA). We knew what we saw. This guy's got a chance to be really good. He throw strikes. He's athletic. He's added a couple pitches so that he doesn't have to rely on the sinker. You're going to see more strikeout ability. He's just a great Saturday option because he can minimize pitches and get early contact. He's also been opening some professional eyes."

GCU brought in right-handed JT Guerrero, a reliever at Fresno State last season, to start but his lower current pitch count will bring him out of the pen or limit him to a shorter start early in the season. He could build into starting, as could senior right-hander Elijah Higginbottom after going 6-0 with a 4.32 ERA for GCU last season. Junior left-hander Chase Frey, senior right-hander Aiden Lee and graduate right-hander Jacob Lemis also are in that same mix.

The Lopes lost left-handed returnee Chance Key and freshman right-hander Andrew Lyon, brother of former Lopes ace Isaac, for the season to injuries.

The short-relief options return senior right-handers Cam Cunnings and Jace Smith and added converted catcher Luke Moeller. Sophomore right-hander Billy Gregory had a standout fall but is coming back from a minor hip injury, as is freshman left-hander Cody Kiemele of Riverside, California.

Wallis expects this team to continue competing for starts and roles through nonconference play, as it prepares for its first Mountain West season. GCU was picked to finish third in the deeper conference to Nevada and Fresno State.

"We expect to go compete right away," Wallis said. "Over the past four years, we're going in with the highest RPI. And even last year, which was a bit of a down year for us, we were second in the conference to Fresno State, who's a good baseball school. I don't think we're going to see a drastically different brand of baseball than the WAC. We're going to see more teams in the Mountain West that would be top four teams in the WAC consistently