Seattle University rallied from a four-run deficit in the eighth and ninth innings to force extra baseball, but Grand Canyon University used a walk-off home run in the 13th inning to pull out a 13-11 victory Sunday afternoon in a Western Athletic Conference collegiate baseball game at Brazell Stadium.
Down 11-7, the Redhawks started their rally in the eighth inning when Sean Sutton (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) and Colin Peterson (Bellingham, Wash.) led off with back-to-back singles. Sutton advanced to third on a fielder’s choice grounder and scored on a groundout to second base by Landon Cray (Chimacum, Wash.).
In the ninth inning, Sheldon Stober (Kent, Wash.) led off with an infield single, followed by a single by Dalton Hurd (Bend, Ore.) and a walk drawn by Brock Carpenter (Milton, Wash.) to load the bases with nobody out. In a pinch hitting situation, Jack Reisinger (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) laced a single into center field, scoring Stober and Hurd to bring the Redhawks to within one at 11-10.
Peterson advanced both Carpenter and Reisinger into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, and Grant Newton (Bend, Ore.) came on as a pinch hitter and singled into center field, driving in Carpenter with the game-tying run. Mick Vorhof was able to retire the next two Redhawk batters to keep the game tied at 11-11.
Ryan Freitas (Concord, Calif.) kept Seattle U in the game with 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief, allowing three hits and three walks during his outing. The Redhawk defense helped by turning inning-ending double plays in both the ninth and 10th innings, but the offense could not produce much off Antelope reliever Zebastian Valenzuela, who gave up just two hits and a walk in 3 1/3 innings while striking out three batters.
After Chad De La Guerra drew a walk off Freitas to lead off the 12th inning and Charles Wagner sacrificed him to second base, Kyle Doyle (Covington, Wash.) came on in relief and retired the Antelopes without any runs scoring. With two outs in the 13th inning, Doyle walked pinch hitter Brian Kraft, and Paul Panaccione followed with a fly ball to left field that just stayed fair and went over the wall for the game-winning home run.
Seattle U struck first in the top of the first inning when Griffin Andreychuk (Nanaimo, B.C.) led off with a walk, advanced to second on a bunt single by Cray, reached third on a double play grounder, and scored on a single to left field by Stober. The Antelopes answered in the bottom of the inning when Panaccione singled, advanced to third on a single by De La Guerra, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Greg Saenz.
The Redhawks loaded the bases in the third inning when Peterson singled, Michael McCann (Vancouver, Wash.) drew a walk, and Andreychuk reached on a bunt single to load the bases with nobody out. Cray drove in Peterson with a sacrifice fly to center field, and Brian Olson (Black Diamond, Wash.) followed with a single to left field that scored McCann.
Grand Canyon (28-20, 15-5 WAC) would take the lead thanks to three runs in the bottom of the third inning. In the fourth inning, after Panaccione drove in Humberto Aranda, De La Guerra launched a three-run home run over the wall in left field to increase the Antelope lead to 8-3.
Seattle U rallied in the fifth inning, as Andreychuk led off with a double and scored on a single by Cray. After a Grand Canyon error, Stober sent a single into right field that scored Cray, and a sacrifice fly by Carpenter drove in Cray to bring the Redhawks to within two at 8-6. However, Grand Canyon scored a run in the bottom of the fifth inning as well as two more runs in the seventh inning to establish its 11-7 advantage.
Five Seattle U players collected three hits apiece as the Redhawks finished with 19 hits in the game, while the top three hitters in the Antelope starting lineup earned four hits apiece as part of Grand Canyon’s 22-hit attack. Each team left 14 runners stranded on base.
Seattle University (23-23, 14-7 WAC) concludes its seven-game road swing Wednesday, May 6, against the Portland Pilots at Joe Etzel Field starting at 3 p.m. The Redhawks then host Chicago State in a three-game WAC series beginning Friday, May 8, at 12 noon at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue.