Needing a confidence boost after dropping a key conference series three weeks ago, the Grand Canyon University Division 1 Club Baseball team rediscovered some much-needed offense in winning two of their three games at the annual National Club Baseball Association Swing Into Spring Tournament in Henderson, Nevada. The Lopes posted double-digit run totals in their two wins, shocking 12^th-ranked Utah State University, 10-3, in Saturday's opener, then after falling to 16^th-ranked UC Santa Barbara, 6-3, Saturday night, rebounded well with a 12-10 win over UCLA Sunday morning. The wins brought the Lopes back over the .500 mark overall with an 8-7 mark and gave them a boost as they prepare for their final three conference series of the season over the next month. In addition, the Lopes' D2 Baseball team ran its record to an incredible 17-0 with a weekend sweep of its three opponents, beating Weber State University, 25-4 in five innings; University of Utah, 7-4; and finally, a 24-1 drubbing of Long Beach State University – again in five innings.
 
Game 1 (Saturday): GCU 10, (12) Utah State 3
 
The Lopes went into the weekend knowing their bats had better be warm right out of the gate against an Aggies' team that sported nine different players hitting .350 or better. What USU may not have banked on was just how locked in the Lopes' pitching trio of Harrison Plummer, Crew Cascaes and Luke Silvestro were on the hill. Plummer initially struggled, allowing the first three Aggies' batters he faced to reach base, with Aggies' shortstop Bryson Clements cashing in one of them with an RBI single, but Plummer rebounded by striking out four of the next six USU hitters. The Aggies played 'small ball' to take a 2-0 lead in the 3^rd on a walk, stolen base and another run-scoring single, but that's where the offense ended. Cascaes and Silvestro finished out the game with four relief innings of three-hit ball, which allowed the Lopes to roar back. A five-run 4^th inning – highlighted by back-to-back extra-base hits from Owen Earle and Noah Rush – gave the Lopes the lead for good, and another four runs in the 6^th (three of them on a Jaden Earle homer) ended the suspense about the outcome. For the game, the Earle Brothers were a combined 3-for-3 with three runs scored and four RBI, while Frankie Martinez added a single, a double and a run scored in four at-bats.
 
Game 2 (Saturday): (16) UC Santa Barbara 6, GCU 3
 
This was the only game of the weekend where Lopes' pitching didn't find a rhythm. Newcomer Brandon Bermudez and senior Tyler Soren – normally the Game 1 and 2 starters in conference series – only allowed six hits and struck out 13 Gauchos' batters between them, but too many pitches outside the strike zone gave UCSB extra opportunities they jumped on. A walk and a hit batter were part of a three-run, two-hit 1^st inning for Santa Barbara, and another free pass in the 5^th was cashed in on a two-out single. A Caisen Medina RBI double in the 2^nd and a bases-loaded single in the 4^th to score two by Jaden Earle kept the Lopes close, but UCSB starter Mekhi Wright never surrendered the lead, retiring 9 of the final 10 Lopes' hitters to face him in earning the complete-game win.
 
Game 3 (Sunday): GCU 12, UCLA 10
 
The early first pitch was apparently welcomed by GCU, who put the game out of reach in the first three innings, and chasing Bruins' starting pitcher Matthew Gobel after just 2/3 of an inning. The first five Lopes' hitters of the game reached base, all coming around to score in a six-run frame (much in part to a bases-loaded double from Owen Earle). A Medina RBI single in the 2^nd padded the lead, which became a 10-3 edge after three innings on a double by Owen Earle and a Rush RBI single. The Bruins made it interesting with a 6-run 5^th, but two GCU runs in the bottom half of the frame stopped the momentum. The Bruins' last gasp for a rally brought the tying run to the plate with two out in the 7^th, but Lopes' closer Nathan McLean got Bruins' 1^st baseman Michael Leddy to ground out to second base to finish it. Rush and the Earles racked up six hits in nine at-bats between them, scoring seven runs themselves and knocking in another eight.
 
The D2 Lopes (17-0 overall, 9-0 Pacific South) have already punched their tickets for the Pacific Region Tournament, which begins May 1 in Palm Springs, California. The D1 Lopes (8-7 overall, 3-3 SoPac South), however, find themselves in unusual territory with three weeks left in the regular season: 3^rd place in the Southern Pacific South Conference, and an urgent need for weekend sweeps to get to the Southern Pacific Tournament in Palm Springs the weekend after the D2 tourney. They can get healthy in a hurry as they face the two teams above them in the standings over the next two weekends, beginning with 1^st-place San Diego State University this Saturday and Sunday, April 11 and 12. The Lopes' final home series will wind up the regular season schedule April 25 and 26 at Colter Baseball Field, hosting Northern Arizona University in a three-game series. First pitch for both Saturday's doubleheader and Sunday's single game will be 10AM, and admission is FREE.