Slow start to the season offensively?
 
Not anymore.
 
Entering the weekend with six hits and two home runs so far this season, the bat of Grand Canyon University Division 1 Club Baseball first baseman Koa Manintin came alive as the Lopes swept their three-game series over archrival Arizona State University at Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark. Manintin was responsible for knocking in every GCU run in a 4-1 victory in Game 1 Saturday; hit his third homer of the doubleheader in the Lopes' 10-7 win in Saturday's nightcap; and finished off the weekend with three runs batted in as the Lopes finished off the sweep Sunday afternoon, 9-2. The sweep sent the Sun Devils (8-4 overall, 3-3 SoPac South) to their first losses in National Club Baseball Association Southern Pacific South Conference play, while the third straight series sweep gave the Lopes (11-2 overall, 9-0 SoPac South) a stranglehold on first place in the standings.
 
Game 1 (Saturday):  GCU 4, ASU 1
 
The series sported the battle of the last two unbeaten teams in the conference, and they seemed closely aligned throughout Game 1. Both ASU starting pitcher Will Case and reigning SoPac South Pitcher of the Week, GCU starter Gordon Wend, went the seven-inning distance, each throwing strikes and hovering around the 100-pitch count by the end. For Wend, he only allowed more than one baserunner in one inning, and that 3^rd inning was where the Sun Devils scored their lone (unearned) run on two singles and a Lopes' fielding error. For Case, his lone problem on the day was wearing No. 50 on the front of his GCU jersey. The scoreless tie lasted five hitters into the bottom of the 1^st inning, when Manintin's sacrifice fly to center plated Nathan Fernandez. After the Sun Devils tied it in the 3^rd, Braeden Coloma led off the 4^th inning with a single up the middle, setting up Manintin, who launched a towering home run over the left field wall to give GCU a 3-1 edge. Wend didn't allow an ASU hit after that, but just for good measure, Manintin led off the 6^th inning cranking the first Case pitch he saw over the left field wall again. Manintin wound up scoring twice and knocking in four runs total, while Wend allowed just three hits while fanning eight ASU batters.
 
Game 2 (Saturday): GCU 10, ASU 7
 
The Sun Devils' 13-hit attack could've earned them the split, but instead, they spent much of the game trailing as GCU scored all 10 runs in the first four innings. After ASU took a 1-0 lead in its first at-bats, two Sun Devil errors in the bottom half helped the Lopes tie the game. Pitchers' generosity gave the Lopes a 3-1 lead after two, since a Frankie Martinez leadoff double, a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases with none out so that a Santiago Zuniga sacrifice fly and Fernandez single would cash in a pair of runs. The Lopes increased the lead by one more in the next inning thanks to – guess who? – Manintin, who crushed another solo bomb over the left field wall (you can watch that one here). The Sun Devils finally had reason for hope when they chased Lopes' starting pitcher Michael Monreal by sending 10 men to the plate in the 4^th and took back a 5-4 edge. Once again, the lead lasted just minutes. The Lopes exploded in the bottom of the frame, using four walks (one an intentional one to Manintin) and RBI doubles from Coloma and Brady Steenson to put the game out of reach with a six-run frame. For the second straight game, Manintin and Sam Ott led the way with a pair of hits each, and six different Lopes had at least one RBI.
 
Game 3 (Sunday):  GCU 9, ASU 2
 
It was an eerily similar pattern to the game: ASU scores first, then GCU takes over. The Sun Devils touched Lopes' starting southpaw Crew Cascaes for two runs in the opening frame, then went silent, going hitless over the last seven innings. Meanwhile, the Lopes again refused to let an ASU lead last long, using three walks to load the bases in the bottom of the 1^st inning and give Manintin another reason to shine, lining a single to right center to plate Zuniga and Ott to tie it. The Lopes broke the tie in the 4^th, leading off the inning with three straight singles and letting Fernandez, Ott and Coloma cash them in one by one. GCU put it out of reach with another three-run inning in the 6^th, plating runs via a throwing error, a bases-loaded walk to Manintin (for his 8^th RBI of the series) and an RBI sacrifice fly by Caden Rogers. The combination of Cascaes (5 innings of four-hit ball to get the win), Luke Olsen (2 2/3 innings of hitless relief) and Tyler Soren limited the Devils to just four hits, while Fernandez and Zuniga combined for five hits, five runs scored and four stolen bases.
 
With three sweeps in three SoPac South weekends, the Lopes finally get a breather for a few weeks before returning to conference against Northern Arizona University March 22 and 23 in Mesa. They're not actually back on the GCU campus until the final weekend of the regular season - Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27 - against their archrivals from Tucson, the Arizona Wildcats back at the Lopes' normal home turf of Colter Field on the GCU campus. First pitch for both Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's regular season finale are slated for 10AM, and admission is FREE.