The burning question since Memorial Day in Alton, Illinois? "How long can the 'elastic arms' of the Lopes' four main pitchers hold on?"
 
The answer Thursday night: "About five innings short of a national title."
 
After fighting through adversity throughout the first four innings, the luck finally ran out on the Grand Canyon University Club Baseball team Thursday night, eventually losing to Penn State University, 7-1, in the championship game of the National Club Baseball Association Division 1 World Series in Alton, Illinois. The win sealed a second consecutive national title for the Nittany Lions (and their 4^th overall) while ending a storied run for the ever-resilient Lopes, who finished 2^nd in the tournament for the second time in five years. The 7^th-seeded Lopes, who went 4-0 against the top three seeds in the tournament during the weeklong event, finished their season with an overall mark of 23-14 – the most wins in the season for the program since 2019.
 
With Connor Bates and Gordon Wend both throwing 100+-pitch wins the past two nights to get the Lopes to this point, the only starter left for Thursday's championship matchup was Sam Ott, who had already started two of the Lopes' previous five tournament games and thrown 140 pitches. Ott – who delivered a similar feat during the Lopes' road to the Southern Pacific Region title three weeks ago – teased the high-powered PSU offense by allowing six hits in the first four innings, but working out of every jam unscathed. He helped his own cause at the plate in the meantime, scoring the Lopes' lone run in the 2nd inning on a sacrifice fly to center field by Brady Steenson.
 
The long week finally got to Ott in the 5^th, when after giving up a leadoff single, he again threatened to keep the shutout alive by retiring the next two batters on popups. This time, though, the Nittany Lions were ready, spraying three straight singles to each field of the park to take a 2-1 lead. Lopes' Head Coach Rich Warnol sensed Ott's tank was empty, and went early to his fourth ironman pitcher of the tournament, closer Tyler Soren. Soren was also making his third appearance in the tournament, which included an uncharacteristically long relief stint Sunday night. Soren got out of the 5^th inning jam, but struggled to find his rhythm in the 6^th, throwing 33 pitches while allowing a walk, a single and a Lopes' throwing error to plate two more Lions' runs. The Lopes were still within range of a comeback – if not for Penn State starting pitcher Brady Palmer. The righty allowed four singles in the first three innings, then effectively shut the door on the GCU offense, letting just three Lopes reach base the rest of the game. Penn State's Scott Hodinko's three-run blast in the 8^th put things out of reach, then Palmer cruised to the finish line, allowing a Caden Rogers single to start the 9^th before sending the final three hitters down in order to begin the PSU celebration.
 
Rogers and Santiago Zuniga finished the season with two hits each against Palmer, who scattered six Lopes' hits overall in picking up his second win of the tournament. Ott took the loss – his only decision of the week – by allowing two earned runs in 4 2/3 innings, and Soren allowed just the one hit and two unearned runs while striking out three over three innings of relief. The Lopes' only tournament losses were to Penn State (22-5 overall, 11-1 North Atlantic West), who went undefeated in Alton despite being seeded sixth.
 
"It was a great run for our guys," said Warnol. "We didn't get the offense to help our pitching tonight, and it's hard to win with just one run. We had a couple of chances but just not enough clutch hits. We're very proud, though, since we played the maximum number of games in both our regional tournament and the World Series, and our guys competed at the highest level throughout the playoffs."