Lopes win – Grand Canyon beat Nevada 9-3 at Don Weir Field at Peccole Park to close the regular season, but the Lopes fell short of the Mountain West Championship. UNLV’s 10th-inning walk-off home run against San Diego State and San José State’s win after Fresno State’s l
RENO, Nev.. — Grand Canyon did what it had to do on the final day of the regular season. scoring early. adding on late. and putting together a 9-3 win over Nevada at Don Weir Field at Peccole Park.. The problem was simple: the Lopes needed results elsewhere to land the sixth and final spot in the Mountain West Championship.
UNLV erased that opening with a 10th-inning walk-off home run against San Diego State. and San José State finished a separate turning point by winning after Fresno State charged back to take a late lead.. Grand Canyon stayed alive as long as possible. but ultimately ended the race just short. finishing in a sixth-place tie in the standings and losing the tiebreakers.
The Lopes closed the season 21-30 overall and 11-13 in their first Mountain West season.. After starting 8-18, they went 13-12 over their final 25 games, winning three of their final four conference series.. They entered Saturday carrying that momentum. and they turned in one of their most complete offensive outings of the year. producing 17 hits and out-hitting Nevada for the sixth straight game.
Grand Canyon’s scoring began in the second inning with quick production from the bottom of the order.. Senior second baseman Vince Bianchina singled. junior shortstop Camden Bates followed with a single. and junior center fielder Griffin Cameron brought in the tying run with a groundout.. Graduate catcher Mito Perez then singled to center to score Bates and put the Lopes ahead 2-1.
The Lopes pushed the lead wider in the third.. Junior first baseman Cannon Peery singled to right. freshman right fielder Tanner Johns doubled him home. and junior third baseman Jose Lopez III followed with an RBI double to left-center.. Bates then added another run-scoring single to stretch the advantage to 5-1.
Nevada got closer in the fourth, trimming it to 5-3, but senior right-hander Elijah Higginbottom kept the Lopes steady.. Higginbottom allowed three runs. two earned. on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts over four innings. keeping Grand Canyon in front before handing things over to the bullpen.
Junior right-hander Nicholas Robb then took over and kept Nevada from making it a game. Robb threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits, with no walks and four strikeouts. From the fifth into the ninth, Nevada stayed off the board, giving the Lopes time to extend their lead.
Grand Canyon finally broke it open in the eighth. Cameron reached on an error, Trevor Schmidt singled, and Peery doubled in a run. Johns answered with a two-run single to push the score to 8-3, completing a day where Johns finished with two hits and three RBIs.
In the ninth, senior Dominic Chacon delivered the capstone when he launched a solo home run to deep right field for his fourth homer of the season. The blast made it a six-run cushion, and the final tally of the day stayed at 17 hits.
At the plate, Perez went 3 for 6 with an RBI, Lopez went 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI, Bates went 3 for 5 with an RBI, and Peery and Johns each had two hits. Grand Canyon hit .462 with runners in scoring position, going 6 for 13 in those spots.
The final out of the season belonged to senior right-hander Jace Smith, the only member of Grand Canyon’s senior class to spend all four seasons with the Lopes. Smith entered with two outs in the ninth and ended the year with a strikeout.
The closing-day outcome came down to timing and a chain of results: Grand Canyon controlled its side with a 9-3 win that included scoring twice in the second. three times in the third. and runs in the eighth and ninth. while UNLV’s 10th-inning walk-off home run against San Diego State and San José State’s late win after Fresno State’s charge kept the rest of the picture from clearing the way for the Lopes.
For Grand Canyon, the season ends just outside the conference tournament picture, but not without a late push.. Back-to-back Mountain West series wins. a winning record over the final 25 games. and a final-day victory kept the postseason hopes alive until the season’s final swings elsewhere removed the possibility of finishing in the top six.
Grand Canyon Lopes Nevada Mountain West Championship UNLV walk-off San Diego State San Jose State Fresno State tiebreakers Don Weir Field at Peccole Park Vince Bianchina Camden Bates Griffin Cameron Mito Perez Elijah Higginbottom