Seizing the opportunity to control its own playoff destiny, the Grand Canyon University Club Baseball team overcame a Game 1 loss in its three-game series with San Diego State University to overpower Aztecs' pitching to win the final two games. The 7-2 Game 1 loss Saturday morning was neutralized by a reawakened Lopes' offense in the final two games, running away with the Saturday nightcap, 9-2, before scoring 11 runs in the final four innings Sunday for a 13-2 victory. The series win moved GCU into a 1^st-place tie in the Southern Pacific South Conference with the Aztecs (14-5 overall, 9-3 SoPac South) but also secure the tiebreaker in the fight for the automatic bid to the SoPac Regional Tournament in mid-May.
 
Game 1 (Saturday):  San Diego State 7. GCU 2
 
Clinging to a one-game lead in the standings going into the series, the Aztecs came out determined to let the four-time defending conference champs from Phoenix know what they were in for. A slow offensive start for both teams ended quickly in the bottom of the 4^th inning as Lopes' starting pitcher Gordon Wend hit the first batter he faced, then walked the next one. Two Lopes' errors and two Aztecs' hits later, SDSU had scored five runs, and GCU never threatened after that. That was much in part to Aztecs' starter T.J. Rahmes, who threw exactly 100 pitches in going the seven-inning distance, scattering seven Lopes' hits while striking out five. Wend made it into the 6^th inning before giving way, charged with the loss after allowing just four hits but seven runs (four earned). Santiago Zuniga and Braeden Coloma had two hits each for the Lopes.
 
Game 2 (Saturday): GCU 9, San Diego State 2
 
If the Lopes needed a 'backs-to-the-wall' scenario to get the job done, here it was… and it worked. From there, the Lopes' offense was rarely thwarted, since in Game 2, the Lopes scored in six of the seven innings and never trailed in the contest. SDSU used five pitchers, but none of them kept the Lopes at bay. Lopes' Head Coach Rich Warnol used 14 position players, and watched a balanced attack unfold as nine of them crossed the plate. The top of the Lopes' batting order was the main force, though, as Zuniga, Koa Manintin and Kyo Ohsato had seven of the team's ten hits. For the second straight week, the Lopes' Game 2 pitching duo of Connor Bates and Tyler Soren more than made the offensive support stand up as Bates fanned eight Aztecs' hitters in five innings of five-hit work, then Soren mopped up with two innings of one-hit ball.  
 
Game 3 (Sunday):  GCU 13, San Diego State 2
 
The Lopes carried the Game 2 momentum into Sunday morning – for an inning. Zuniga and Ohsato greeted SDSU starter Grayson Coons with back-to-back singles to start the game, and Coloma cashed them in with a double to left field. Then Coons settled down for a while, allowing his offense to use extra-base hits in both the 3^rd and 5^th innings to tie the game up at 2-2 against Lopes' starter Sam Ott. GCU showed signs of getting the upper hand on Coons in the 6^th as they took the lead back with the Caisen Medina RBI single, but an Aztecs' double play ended the threat to keep it a one-run affair. Finally, Coons withered in the 7^th and the Lopes pounced, chasing him with three singles and an Aztecs' error to score two runs, then opening the floodgates on SDSU relievers to score eight more in the final 2 2/3 innings on – incredibly – one hit (and six walks, four hit batters, two passed balls and a botched pickoff attempt). Ott got his wish from Warnol to go the distance on the hill, responding with a four-hit, two earned run, eight strikeout performance in 130 pitches over nine innings.
 
Standing in the way of a fifth straight regular season crown and the Lopes (11-11 overall, 9-3 SoPac South) is 5^th-place Northern Arizona University, who will help the Lopes close out the regular season schedule this weekend with a three-game set at Colter Field on the GCU campus. First pitch for both Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's nine-inning finale will be at 10AM, and admission is FREE.