The time has come for GCU and its baseball program to be on one of the biggest stages in all of college sports as they are ready to make some noise in the Tucson Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Finishing an impressive 23-7 in the WAC and 34-23 overall before the NCAA Tournament, Grand Canyon is set for a tough test when the Lopes face in-state rivals, No. 13 Arizona tonight. U of A is coming off winning the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament last week by beating USC in the championship, 4-3.
Lopes Gearing Up for Regional Down South
The Lopes won the three-game season series over the Wildcats this season when they played each other, 2-1. Arizona won 6-4 on March 19 before GCU claimed a 5-4 victory in Phoenix on April 16 and a 24-8 blowout win in Tucson on April 30.
Heading down south and returning to Hi Corbett Field, familiarity with whichever ballpark they play at is a plus in terms of being able to adapt to a different environment.
“Usually when you are going to a regional, you are going to a brand new ballpark where you don’t know how it plays and what factors in,” WAC Player of the Year Tyler Wilson said. “Having to come down here for the past four years at least twice a year, it definitely makes all the difference. Knowing how the outfield plays and what angles you have to take. Should be no surprises.”
Grand Canyon have been slipping as of late as they are 2-5 in their last seven games, including 0-2 in the WAC Tournament.
But with eleven players who played on Grand Canyon the last time they made the regional in 2022, experience being in this stage of the season again is a huge plus since the upperclassmen have dealt with this type of pressure before and teach their younger counterparts how to cope with what it has to offer. In 2022, Wilson, Elijah Buries, Dustin Crenshaw, Cade Verdusco, Maxwell Andeel, Beau Ankeney, Daniel Avitia, John Sheehan, Shawn Triplett, Bryan Webb and Carter Young were all part of the Lopes’ last regional run.
Planning on breaking out of the slight funk they are in heading into the regional, Lopes head coach Gregg Wallis will continue to rely upon the veterans guiding the team going forward.
“It’s made it really enjoyable, our senior class is very experienced and they have played a lot of baseball games,” Wallis said. “They just kind of taken the lead, especially midway through the season. I remember when we got hot with a 10-game winning streak towards the end that the seniors took the lead and the older guys just took charge. They were leading by example, leading in the dugout… It’s very rewarding seeing how they have gone about it this year and getting rewarded to come out here and compete for a championship.”
Grand Canyon has yet to win a game at a regional tournament since being promoted to a Division I program, so the possibility of the team achieving a first in its history would be monumental.
Knowing the significance of what is at stake for GCU as a program, Wallis is confident in his team and believes they have what it takes to succeed.
“It’s how we come out and how quickly we settle in,” Wallis said. “Hopefully we learned something from last week. I thought we were as prepared as ever and it just didn’t work out that way. Just going to come down to how quickly we can settle into this environment and play the type of baseball that we are capable of.”
The first pitch between GCU and Arizona is set for 6:30 p.m. PT tonight at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson.
GCU Baseball clinch NCAA Tournament berth after strong regular season in the WAC
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers ASU Athletics, Phoenix Mercury and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
