After winning its first-ever national championship a year ago, the Grand Canyon University Club Baseball Division 2 team spent all of this season entrenched in the top spot in the 2023 National Club Baseball Association Rankings – just ahead of Ohio State University. Despite GCU winning its second straight Pacific Region Tournament title three weeks ago, those in charge of seeding the NCBA Division 2 World Series in Alton, Illinois, surprisingly switched the two teams, making the Buckeyes the #1 seed.
 
The two teams held up their ends of the bargain during the eight-team tournament to become the last two standing, finally meeting in Tuesday's championship game, where OSU proved the seeds accurate in a 3-0 victory over the 2^nd-seeded Lopes. The defeat – which took just 95 minutes to play - left the Lopes one win short of back-to-back national titles (and a 3-2 tournament mark) as they finished a monumental season with an overall record of 23-4.
 
Other than a 5-1 loss Monday afternoon to the University of New Hampshire in the semifinals, the Lopes entered Tuesday's matchup having trailed in just one other inning during the double-elimination tournament. The combination of timely hitting and 'close-to-the-vest' pitching had served the Lopes well throughout, but neither came to the forefront against the Buckeyes Tuesday night at Lloyd Hopkins Field. While Lopes' starting pitcher Sam Mueller only allowed a run on three hits in his 2 1/3 innings of work, he had to work out of trouble in every frame. Mueller allowed a 1^st-inning run on an Andrew Bierden RBI double (Bierden ended the inning trying to stretch it into a triple and was thrown out at 3^rd), then Mueller put runners on 2^nd and 3^rd with one out in the 2^nd before getting out of it with a strikeout and a lineout to shortstop. Owen Kroeger took over for Mueller midway through the 3^rd and worked out of another spot, but OSU broke through against both Kroeger and Thomas Blakney in the 4^th. The Buckeyes used a pair of Kroeger walks and a Lopes' error to get runners in scoring position, then OSU 2^nd baseman Noah Dzierwa stroked a single to center to score both.
 
Meanwhile, the Lopes' offense had no answer for OSU starter Drew Lane all evening long. Nathan Fernandez got the Lopes started with a 1^st-inning single but couldn't get past 1^st base. Chris Walsh got aboard in the 3^rd with a two-out single and reached 2^nd base on a walk, but the rally and the offensive chances ended there. Lane retired the next 12 Lopes' hitters to face him, and would've carried that streak one out further if he hadn't hit Mike Walsh with a pitch with two out in the 7^th. The potential tying run never got past the on-deck circle for the Lopes, though, as Lane got Lopes' designated hitter Mason Mosher to ground out to 3^rd on the next play, and the Buckeyes' championship celebration was on.
 
Blakney wound up the Lopes' top pitcher for the tournament, adding last night's 2 2/3 scoreless innings to his complete-game win Saturday against Missouri S&T University, and finishing with 11 strikeouts and just eight hits allowed in 9 2/3 innings of scoreless work. Chris Walsh did what a leadoff hitter should for the Lopes in the tournament, hitting .500 (7-for-14) with a double, a run scored, a run batted in and four stolen bases; while Dimitri Pettit had six hits, four RBI and scored twice in 16 at-bats.
 
"I am very proud of these young men," said Lopes' D2 Head Coach Kim Carpenter. "We fought through every game, and to get back to the championship game was a great accomplishment. I am also thankful for what the university does to be so supportive of club sports."