"Pitching wins championships."
 
Especially when it comes from the unlikeliest of sources in crucial situations.
 
Using a pitcher that hadn't seen the mound in weeks, as well as a star shortstop to close out the tournament on the mound, the Grand Canyon University Club Baseball team stormed from behind in their final two games of the 2024 National Club Baseball Association's Division 1 Southern Pacific Regional Tournament in San Luis Obispo, California Sunday to win the tournament for the first time in five years. Needing two straight wins in the double-elimination tournament's championship round, the 3^rd-seeded Lopes came back from a four-run deficit in the first game against 4^th-seeded University of California-Santa Barbara to win, 7-6, Sunday morning; then stormed back three hours later with seven runs in their final at-bat to win the championship game, 11-9. The Lopes (19-12 overall, 12-3 SoPac South) won their final three games of the tournament (over a 21-hour span) in earning their first trip to the NCBA D1 World Series since 2019, and ended the Cinderella run of UCSB, who narrowly missed punching their first World Series ticket since 2011.
 
Championship Round (Sunday morning): #3 GCU 7, #4 UC Santa Barbara 6
 
As the tournament's only remaining undefeated team, UCSB entered the championship round with nearly a full day's rest and just three pitchers used while winning their first two games. Meanwhile, the Lopes had burned through all but two members of their pitching staff in winning two of their three previous tournament outings, which meant Lopes' Head Coach Rich Warnol hoped that Friday starter Gordon Wend would still have something left in the tank to take the hill Sunday morning. Wend never made it out of the 3^rd inning, though, allowing five runs in 2 2/3 innings, and forcing Warnol to go to his bullpen early.
 
Enter lefthander Crew Cascaes, who had only been with the D1 team since the beginning of the spring semester, and due to arm issues, hadn't pitched since April 2. No problem. The lefty from Chandler Preparatory Academy calmly closed out the 3^rd, then allowed just one Gauchos' baserunner past 1^st base over the next four innings. That allowed the Lopes' offense to slowly catch up. Brady Steenson tripled and scored in the 3^rd inning to get the Lopes on the board and GCU added two more in the 5^th. Gauchos' starting pitcher Kevin Alarcon went six strong innings, but once he was gone, six Lopes' hitters reached base in the 7^th, scoring three to take their first lead of the game, 6-5. A tiring Cascaes allowed a solo homer in the bottom of the 8^th to tie the score, but the suddenly energized Lopes snapped back in the 9^th with an RBI double from Arturo Lopez, Junior, to give the Lopes the lead back. Lopes' closer Tyler Soren created a little drama by letting the Gauchos put the potential tying and winning runs aboard in the 9^th, but picked up his 3^rd save of the season by getting a foul popup for the final out. Cascaes (2-1) got the win, allowing a single run and five hits over 5 1/3 innings – his second-longest outing of the year. Lopez, Kyo Ohsato and Jonah Zembik had two hits apiece to help send the tournament to a 'winner-take-all' finale.
 
Championship Game (Sunday afternoon): #3 GCU 11, #4 UC Santa Barbara 9
 
Warnol rounded up his pitching staff in-between games and asked how many of them thought they had something left for the final game. Most said they'd be available.
 
There was one man missing from the huddle.
 
For the first 7 ½ innings, Santiago Zuniga was where he'd been all season for GCU: as the anchor of the Lopes' defense at shortstop. The Lopes' junior watched as starting pitcher Connor Bates – trying to avenge his loss to UCSB Saturday morning – fired four strong shutout innings to keep the Lopes afloat. Over the next four innings, though, it was obvious that the gas tanks of the five other relievers that Warnol used were nearly empty, which allowed the Gauchos to score in each inning and build a 9-4 lead.
 
Conversely, UCSB had a similar lack of pitching options, but Gauchos' starter Ethan Kwan – who hadn't pitched more than five innings in any game all season – did his team a huge favor, allowing GCU a single run over six innings before showing signs of fatigue in giving up three runs in the 7^th. In the middle of the 8^th inning, when Zuniga returned to the dugout, he looked at Warnol and said, "I'm ready if you need me." Even though he'd never pitched in a college game (but had casually thrown in a Lopes' practice or two), Warnol told Zuniga to go warm up.
 
While that was happening, Kwan tried to do his team one last favor by pitching the 8^th inning, but immediately regretted it, giving up a Steenson double, hitting a batter and issuing a bases-loaded walk before exiting. Alarcon was UCSB's only other option, but his tank was dry, and the Lopes sent a total of 11 to the plate in the inning, using a bases-loaded double from Sam Ott and another Steenson double to score seven and take an 11-9 lead.
 
Now the spotlight was on Zuniga to no longer just get three outs, but to pitch the team to a title. Zuniga struck out two of the first three Gauchos to face him but allowed the tying runs to reach base with two out. Fittingly, UCSB's best hitter, Chase Bolton, who had gone 5-for-5 before that at-bat, hit a 1-1 pitch back to Zuniga on the mound, who flipped it to 1^st baseman Braeden Coloma to end the game and start the celebration.
 
"Looking at my staff going into that final inning, we decided to give Santiago the opportunity he'd been asking for all season long," said Warnol. "He threw nine strikes in 12 pitches, made a great play on the final out, and it seemed to energize our team seeing him on the mound. It was a long, crazy weekend, but seeing some great things like the clutch hitting of guys like Arturo, Brady and Rhys (Davis) (who had five hits apiece in the tournament), and clutch pitching throughout in one of the toughest region tournaments around puts us in a good place heading to where we've wanted to return to for a few years."
 
Ohsato went a scorching 9-for-17 in the tournament, scoring six runs and knocking in three more, while Zuniga racked up a double in six hits, with four stolen bases, six runs scored and three RBI. In three appearances on the mound, Soren was 2-0 with a save in six innings of scoreless relief.
 
The Lopes will get a little less than two weeks to rest their staff's arms and get mentally prepped for Alton, Illinois and the six-day, eight-team NCBA D1 World Series. Brackets were released Monday afternoon, and the 7^th-seeded Lopes will open tournament play on Friday, May 24 against 2^nd-seeded Iowa State University in a 12:45PM Arizona time first pitch. The Lopes haven't finished lower than 3^rd place in their two previous outings at the double-elimination tournament, which will officially crown the 2024 champion on Thursday, May 30.