GCU, Arizona stage 1st of 3 meetings

Tuesday, March 3

Hi Corbett Field • Tucson, Ariz.

6 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Arizona

Photo by: David Kadlubowski

3/2/2026 4:45:00 PM | Baseball

GCU Notes

Lopes hold 6-2 edge in last 8 against Wildcats

By: Josh Hauser

PITCHING PROBABLES

RHP Collin McKinney (0-2, 6.75) vs. LHP Cody Kiemele (0-0, 0.00)

Grand Canyon and Arizona resume a longstanding series that dates back to 1967. For the sixth straight season, the Lopes and Wildcats are scheduled to meet three times. The season's first meeting takes place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday from Tucson's Hi Corbett Field.

The game will stream on ESPN+ when the Lopes send freshman lefty Cody Kiemele to the bump for the second straight time in a midweek game.

3 THINGS TO KNOW

GCU V ARIZONA SUCCESS: Grand Canyon has won six of the last eight meetings against Arizona, taking the season series between the two programs in back-to-back seasons. A pair of recent highlights came in the 2024 season, first when GCU took the regular-season series with a 24-8 win at Hi Corbett, then returning to Tucson to defeat the Wildcats in the Tucson Regional for GCU's first NCAA Tournament win.

LOPES-WILDCATS TIES: GCU has three players who spent time in the Arizona program: junior first baseman Trevor Schmidt, junior catcher Kade Huff and senior right-hander Luke Moeller. Lopes pitching coach Nathan Bannister played for the Wildcats from 2013-16. Junior infielder Troy Sanders is a Tucson native (Catalina Foothills HS).

BILLY BALL: Junior utilityman Billy Scaldeferri leads the Mountain West and ranks 30th nationally with an .889 slugging percentage. He has a GCU-best 10-game hit streak and leads the team in average (.417) and OPS (1.339). Scaldeferri has six doubles which ranks 23rd nationally. He helped the Lopes crawl out of an early deficit on Sunday against Pacific with a second-inning grand slam.

SCOUTING ARIZONA

Arizona enters the midweek matchup looking to build on momentum from a 2-1 weekend in Las Vegas. The Wildcats are 3-8 overall but riding a two-game winning streak after neutral-site victories over Vanderbilt (5-1) and UC Irvine (7-1), bouncing back from an 0-3 opening weekend at Surprise Stadium and a 1-3 home series against UConn. Through 11 games, Arizona is hitting .227 as a team with 40 runs scored and 18 doubles, while posting a 5.00 ERA and a .975 fielding percentage.

Last season, Arizona authored one of the nation's best campaigns, finishing 44-21 overall and 18-12 in its first year in the Big 12 while capturing the conference tournament title. The Wildcats advanced through the Eugene Regional and upset North Carolina in the Chapel Hill Super Regional to reach their 19th College World Series appearance and first since 2021. Arizona concluded the year ranked No. 7 by D1Baseball.com.

WHAT'S NEXT?

GCU will be in Salt Lake City for the opening of Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark, the new on-campus stadium for Utah. The four-game set will begin on Friday at 6 p.m. with the full series streaming on ESPN+.

For more GCU baseball news, notes and numbers, click here to view game notes.