Needing three wins to control its playoff destiny, the Grand Canyon University Club Baseball team took care of its own business, sweeping Northern Arizona University in the teams' final series of the regular season to clinch its 5^th consecutive Southern Pacific South Conference title. The Lopes mercy-ruled the Lumberjacks in all three games: a pair of 10-0, five-inning games Saturday, followed by an 11-0 seven-inning affair Sunday. The sweep helped the Lopes clinched their 5^th straight berth in the SoPac Regional Tournament – scheduled for May 10 through 12 in San Luis Obispo, California.
 
Game 1 (Saturday):  GCU 10, NAU 0 (F/5)
 
The first inning set the tone, since the Lumberjacks strung together three straight singles in the 1^st inning but wound up with nothing to show for it; while the Lopes used a double, four singles and two walks to bat around and score five runs in the bottom of the frame. That was the best scoring chance NAU had all game – although they put two baserunners in scoring position in the 5^th, but a monster throw from Braeden Coloma helped nail NAU's Luke Root trying to stretch a double to a triple; and starting pitcher Gordon Wend then picked off Tristan Cook when he wandered from second base. Meanwhile, the Lopes scored in all but one inning, and their 13-hit attack culminated in the 5^th with an RBI single from Santiago Zuniga to score one and a Kyo Ohsato sacrifice fly to left to plate Jonah Zembik with the 10^th run to invoke the five-inning, 10-run mercy rule. Wend (3-1) fanned seven while allowing just five hits in going the distance, and Ohsato and Sam Ott both went 3-for-3 at the plate.
 
Game 2 (Saturday): GCU 10, NAU 0 (F/5)
 
The game itself lasted just 90 minutes. The final half-inning took one-third of that time. The first 4 ½ innings were characterized by two contrasting but equally effective pitchers. GCU's Connor Bates fired past Lumberjacks' hitters with power, striking out eight while allowing only the first hitter he faced to reach base (via a walk); while NAU's Ronan Whitley – getting the starting nod on a few minutes' notice – worked his off-speed stuff to keep the Lopes off-balance, allowing a single run via a Caden Rogers walk, two stolen bases and a balk. The bottom third of the Lopes' order, though, started Whitley's undoing in the 5^th – again without a hit. Cole Wathen's leadoff grounder was misplayed, Caisen Medina was hit by a Whitley pitch, and Josiah Salazar sacrificed them into scoring position. Then the floodgates opened as the next eight Lopes' hitters all reached base, including doubles from Zuniga, Coloma and Ott, and neither Whitley nor Cook (in relief) had an answer. Zuniga's second hit of the inning – a single to center – plated a sliding Wathen for the ninth run of the inning and another invoked mercy rule. Seven of the nine Lopes' hitters had at least one hit – led by Zuniga's 3-for-4 performance – and while not thinking about it 20 minutes before, Bates suddenly celebrated his first career no-hitter.
 
Game 3 (Sunday): GCU 11, NAU 0 (F/7)
 
An extremely ill Lopes' Head Coach Rich Warnol filled out the lineup card, then headed home to bed. He left the squad in good hands, since after pregame festivities honoring outgoing Lopes' seniors Ohsato, Zembik, Rhys Davis, Arturo Lopez, Jr., and Conor Whitaker, the Lopes went to work. The Zuniga/Ohsato combo was deadly, each going 4-for-5 and scoring eight of GCU's 11 runs. Ohsato was a one-man wrecking crew, hitting for the cycle with a 1^st-inning single, 2-run blast in the 2^nd, a 4^th-inning triple to plate two more, and an RBI double in the 5^th that could've been a single if Ohsato hadn't stretched it rounding 1^st base even when he saw the centerfielder glove the ball. On the hill, Whitaker started with two innings of one-hit ball, then Ott carried it through, also allowing a single hit over four innings to get his fourth win.
 
The 17^th-ranked Lopes (15-11 overall, 12-3 SoPac South) will now first worry about finals (Finals Week on campus is underway), then concentrate on making the trip west in two weeks for one of the more hotly contested regional tournaments across the National Club Baseball Association. One of the other two automatic tournament bids has been locked up by the 3^rd-ranked team in the nation, SoPac North champ University of California-Davis, and while 2^nd-ranked California Polytechnic University hasn't clinched the SoPac Central yet, they will likely get the final at-large bid if they don't win their conference. The particulars of the four-team tournament will be officially announced next week. The Lopes are seeking their first regional title and trip to the NCBA Division 1 World Series since 2019, when they reached the national championship game.