OREM, Utah – Utah Valley baseball found itself on the wrong end of an 8-2 contest to Grand Canyon in the series opener of a four-game WAC series on Thursday evening at UCCU Ballpark in Orem.
The preseason favorite Lopes improve to 12-12-1 overall and 7-2 in conference play with the victory, while UVU falls to 4-17 and 2-7 in WAC play with the setback.
"It was good to see Pacen (Hayes) come out and a get couple of hits for us today. We also had a couple of opportunities to score some runs but ended up lining out," head UVU coach
Eric Madsen said. "My hat's off to GCU, that's obviously a very good team, but we need to come out and take advantage of the opportunities that we have and find a way to win tomorrow."
With the Lopes holding to an early 1-0 lead,
Pacen Hayes blasted a solo homer out to the opposite field for the Wolverines in the second to deadlock the score at 1-1.
GCU then answered with an unearned in the third and added three more runs in the fourth to extend its lead to 5-1. With a runner aboard and one out in the frame, Channy Ortiz hit out a two-run home run to right to make it 4-1. The Lopes later loaded the bases following three straight walks and added a run on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Ryland Zaborowski to give them the four-run cushion.
Despite a couple of nice plays at the hot corner from
Mick Madsen in the sixth, GCU managed to push across an insurance run that inning on a two-out RBI double from Tyler Wilson to left center to make it 6-1. The Lopes then made it 7-1 in the seventh following back-to-back-to-back singles.
The Wolverines then loaded the bases with nobody out in the last of the seventh and got a run back on a bases loaded walk from
Mick Madsen to make it 7-2. Following a strikeout,
Garrett Broussard and
Mitch Moralez then both hit a couple of shots on the infield, but GCU first baseman Nick Hansen and shortstop Ortiz made consecutive nice defensive plays to help the Lopes get out of the jam.
GCU tacked on a run in the eighth en route to pulling out the opener by a score of 8-2.
Despite the loss, the UVU pitching staff did a nice job of stranding baserunners in the contest, as GCU finished leaving a total of 15 runners on the basepaths on the day. Both
Dawson Day and
Carson Brown posted scoreless outings in the late innings for UVU.
Hayes led UVU by going 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored while Moralez and
Jeff Arens each added 1-for-3 outings, and
Kade Poulsen went 1-for-4 with a double. Ortiz paced the Lopes by going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored while Elijah Buries added a 2-for-5 showing with two runs scored.
GCU starter Zach Barnes earned the win to improve to 3-4 on the year after allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out six over 6.0 innings of work. Jack Slominski then came on to pitch the final three innings of scoreless action to earn a three-inning save. UVU starter
Jesse Schmit was tagged with the loss to drop to 1-4 on the year.
UVU and GCU will continue the Easter-weekend series with a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. MT at UCCU Ballpark. The series will then conclude with the weekend finale on Saturday at noon. For ticket information, visit UVU.UniversityTickets.com or call 801-863-7468.
