Grand Canyon bullpen collapses in final 2 innings of regional elimination loss to Missouri State

Grand Canyon was cruising to what would have been the first NCAA Tournament win in its baseball history..

Tayler Aguilar crushed two balls in his first two at-bats for two-run homers each. Nick Hull set a career high with 10 strikeouts.

But then came the last two innings.

A 7-1 lead quickly disappeared on three Missouri State home runs and the Antelopes painfully left O'Brate Stadium on Saturday afternoon with an 8-7 loss that ended their season.

This Stillwater Regional ending will sting for a long time.

"We can't let that sting here," said coach Andy Stankiewicz, who is 0-4 in regionals since last year leading the Lopes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance. "We had a good season to get to this arena, this regional.

"It hurts obviously. But you've just got to be a man and move on."

It was the 19th time that No. 4 seed Missouri State rallied to win a game this season.

But to do it against GCU closer Vince Reilly was stunning.

Reilly was the Western Athletic Conference's top closer, but in his last two appearances, dating to last week's WAC Tournament, he was not himself.

He hit the first batter he faced in the ninth. Then walked a batter. Then he gave up a three-run homer to Spencer Nivens that cut the score to 7-6.

"At that point we needed somebody who could throw strikes, and not give them any freebies," Stankiewicz said.

Still none out, Stankiewicz brought in Carter Young, who also struggled out of the bullpen last week in the elimination loss to Abilene Christian in the WAC Tournament.

Second baseman Jonny Weaver committed an error on a ground ball, before Mason Hull ripped a two-run homer just fair of the left-field foul pole to give the Bears an improbably 8-7 lead.

Just like that, it was over.

The Antelopes went down quietly in their half of the ninth against Jake McMahill, who came on in the sixth after reliever Eric Loomis had to leave the game with an arm injury after throwing five pitches.

McMahill struck out seven and gave up one run over the final 4 2/3 innings for his second win of the season.

This was the most painful loss in GCU baseball history under 11-year coach Stankiewicz.

Last year, when the Lopes reached the first regional in their Division I history, they were swept out of Tucson by Arizona and Oklahoma State.

"It's hard," Stankiewicz said. "The guys put it on the line for us today. We got everything we could ask of our starting pitcher, and then some."

Hull struck out a career-high 10 batters and gave up one run but he also threw a career-high 117 pitches. He left the bullpen in a good position after 6 1/3 innings of work.

"I think I gave our team a chance to win," Hull said. "That's all I can really try to do when I go out there.

"When I go out there I want to throw 100 pitches or more, and that's what I want the coach to expect of me. I tried to throw as much as I could to save the bullpen."

But the bullpen couldn't save Hull's gutsy effort.

Right-hander Brodie Cooper-Vassalakis gave up a two-run homer to Drake Baldwin in the eighth that cut GCU's lead to 7-3.

After Eli Ankeney came on to get the last two outs of the inning, the last one on a tipped swinging strikeout that catcher Josh Buckley was able to hold onto, it appeared the Lopes could feel good about the final inning, even after going down quietly in the bottom of the eighth.

But nobody expected GCU's best reliever to struggle again, leading to the the Lopes' fourth straight loss, their longest losing streak of the season that overshadowed the 41 wins and 7-4 record against Power 5 opponents.

"It's gut-wrenching, but it's baseball," Stankiewicz said. "You've got to finish. You play nine innings for a reason. We lost our way obviously late and we took one on the chin."

GCU hit four home runs in the game. Aguilar added his fifth RBI in the fifth to make it 6-1. Jacob Wilson's solo homer in the seventh put the Lopes up 7-1 and feeling really good about coming back Sunday for another elimination game.

After Aguilar provided the offense in the 7-1 loss to Arkansas, getting three of his team's eight hits, including a home run, Aguilar said he felt the offense would come out on fire.

"As you could see, the fire didn't stay at the end of the game," he said.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Grand Canyon collapses in final inning in loss to Missouri State