Top-seed GCU baseball eliminated from WAC tournament with 2 losses on same day

A marathon Thursday turned into a slow walk back to the bus at midnight, leaving Hohokam Stadium with more painful memories of a season that might have been lost in the Western Athletic Conference baseball tournament.

After waiting an hour-and-a-half to play its first game of the double-elimination tourney due to the 9 a.m. game lasting 3 hours and 41 minutes, Grand Canyon's bats were mostly silent in a 4-2 loss to No. 5 Tarleton State, as a slew of base runners were left on bases, including three of them in the final inning.

Then, after waiting through another game, the Lopes came back out at 8:45 p.m. to battle No. 7 UT Rio Grande Valley to keep its season alive. The Lopes got their bats going, including Tyler Wilson blasting a three-run homer and setting a GCU record hit streak at 25 games, but, in the end, pitching couldn't hold up, and they lost 10-9.

But it's not quite over.

Because Tarleton beat Abilene Christian on Friday to reach the championship round Saturday, the Lopes can gain an NCAA Tournament bid by default if Tarleton ends up winning the title. Tarleton would have to lose twice Saturday for GCU not to get the automatic bid.

Because Tarleton still is in transition as an NCAA Division I school, the Texans are still not eligible for the NCAA Tournament. That means it would revert to the regular-season champion for the WAC automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

Tarleton and UT Rio Grande Valley had already both played two games to get into Thursday's quarterfinal round, while GCU had a double-bye for capturing its fourth consecutive regular-season championship.

"When we had the five-run inning, Tyler Wilson with the big home run, it looked like it might propel us into playing great baseball the rest of the weekend," coach Gregg Wallis said. But it didn't work out. I don't quite know why yet. I'll have to process that and figure out our preparation. Why we play so well in the regular season and don't seem to play well here."

More GCU baseball news: Tyler Wilson's hot bat gives Grand Canyon baseball hope of winning WAC Tournament

A Hohokam curse

GCU clinched the WAC regular-season title a week before its final regular-season trip to Utah, basically running away from everybody by five games. But that wasn't going to clinch a third NCAA Tournament bid in four years. he Lopes needed to win the WAC tournament to do that.

And the Hohokam curse continued. CU's last six WAC tournament losses have come at Hohokam against Texas schools. In 2022, after winning it first two games of the tournament, GCU lost twice to Abilene Christian.

On Thursday, it appeared that WAC tournament losing streak to Texas schools would end in the fifth, after Eli Paton's solo home run and Wilson's three-run blast highlighted a five-run inning that broke the game open, giving the Lopes a 9-4 lead.

But that didn't last past the fifth, as UTRGV (29-24) scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning to cut it to one. The Vaqueros added a run in the seventh to tie it and another in the eighth to take a 10-9 lead.

Nico Rodriguez held GCU (34-23) scoreless over the last four innings, giving up three hits, walking one, striking out three to improve his record to 5-0.

The game ended 10 minutes before midnight.

It's disappointing," Wallis said. Everyone's frustrated. Everyone's disappointed because this was a great team. It was the best team that I'd been a part of. I've been around for every Division I team at Grand Canyon, and this was the best one that we had here. They won the WAC by five games. That was something we never came close to doing that. To have it end in one day, it's hard. It's hard to take. It's hard to process. Everyone is a bit at a loss at what just happened. I told the boys, this is competitive athletics, and this type of stuff can happen.

"We didn't get it done, but I told them they had to walk out of here with their heads high because one day doesn't change that."

Regular-season titles are great, but for the third year in a row, the Lopes couldn't finish the goal of winning the conference tournament. In 2022, Andy Stankiewicz's last season leading the Lopes, they built a strong enough non-conference resume to secure an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament despite falling short in the WAC tournament.

Last year, in Wallis' first season taking over the program after being Stankiewicz's main recruiter, the Lopes won their first game, then lost the next two and was done. No NCAA Tournament bid. Those losses came against Texas schools. Thursday's losses came against Texas schools.

GCU was 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position in the 4-2 loss to Tarleton State. Against UTRGV, pitching allowed 10 runs on 15 hits.

Isaac Lyon gave up eight hits and eight runs, five of those earned, walking a batter and hitting another in 4 2/3 innings. Walter Quinn worked through two innings giving up an unearned run, and Nathan Ward got the loss in his 1 1/3 innings, giving up a home run in the eighth to Martin Vazquez, who had three hits and three RBIs to extend the Vaqueros' season into Friday.

Wilson had two hits and four RBIs, Paton had three hits and two RBIs and shortstop Emilio Barreras, who made the last out of the game with runners on the corners, had three hits and two RBIs for GCU.

Last year, after winning their first game of the WAC baseball tournament, GCU lost its next two to Texas schools, UT Arlington and Sam Houston, the last one over after eight innings due to the run rule in a 22-8 agonizing defeat.

Tarleton loss

GCU looked a little too ramped up to face a Tarleton State pitching staff that didn't appear worn down after playing its third game in three days. Leadoff man Tyler Wilson, the WAC Player of the Year, jumped on the first pitch he saw in the game and skied it to center. e skied the ball to center for outs in his next three at-bats, before starting the ninth, his team down 4-2, with a hard shot off the pitcher that allowed him to beat out an infield single. That extended his hitting streak to 24 games.

Cade Verdusco followed with a single.

GCU baseball honors: GCU baseball's Tyler Wilson named WAC Player of Year, Gregg Wallis Coach of the Year

Zach Yorke got under the ball too much and flew out to the left before cleanup hitter Eli Paton struck out.

The game should have ended on Dustin Crenshaw's high hopper to third. But the third baseman's throw pulled the first baseman off the bag for the first error of the game.

With the bases loaded, senior Elijah Buried tapped a ground out to first, forcing the Lopes to regroup.

Responding in a win-or-go-home situation

"We just have to come back, win tonight, whatever they throw at us, our backs are against the wall," Wallis said. We just have to win. Win or go home."

Wallis tried to tell his players before this tournament that "weird things can happen."

Texas teams have been extremely tough outs for GCU in the past two WAC tournaments.

Tarleton State (30-23) came into the tournament with an overall losing record and the No. 6 seed, but beat No. 8 Sacramento State 12-6 and No. 4 California Baptist 5-3 before squeezing out a one-run win over a GCU team that beat Tarleton 14-0 on March 17.

The Texans' first run Thursday came on Hunter Smith stealing home in the fourth to tie the score. Smith jumped on starting left-hander Grant Richardson's slow delivery to the plate and hit the pitch and sled in easily.

In the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, they scratched out a run in each, getting the leadoff batter on base to start the fifth and sixth. They did not have an extra-base hit but got clutch RBI singles by Cole Mears, Kooper Shook and Smith to take a 4-2 lead in the seventh.

Tarleton State got clutch pitching from starter Matt Haley and relievers Grant Garza, Piercen McElyea, Reese Bassinger and Jack Driskell to keep the Lopes' batters mostly quiet. GCU had eight hits, but the damage was limited.

Crenshaw's pinch-hit, two-out single with the bases loaded in the fifth tied the score at 2-2. But the Lopes left the bases loaded after Crenshaw grounded into a force out.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. ollow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Top-seed GCU baseball loses 2 games on same day in WAC tourney