Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

Photo Gallery (images by Meg Williams)

Oakland, CA -- The Urban Knight fell victim again to the big inning in their season finale against PacWest rival Grand Canyon, as the Antelopes put up 8 in the fifth and 7 in the sixth of the first game in a lopsided 20-3 defeat. The second game was closer, but the Knights couldn't muster any offense behind Spencer Roland, who pitched five innings but was saddled with the loss in a 4-0 contest in the nightcap.

Grand Canyon got a rally for free to start the game, as starter Wade Broadstreet (0-9) walked the leadoff man and hit Nick Chapman. Michael Pomeroy, who came into tonight with the second-highest batting average in the conference at .438, singled to load the bases, bringing up the only person ahead of Pomeroy, the Lopes cleanup hitter Derek Mendoza. Broadstreet limited the damage by getting Mendoza, who was batting .438, to hit a sacrifice fly to right field. The next batter, P.J. Garcia, then hit another fly ball to center field, which scored Chapman from third, but resulted in a rare play when the Knights appealed to second base, nailing Pomeroy for leaving early and ending the inning only down 2-0.

The Knights got one back in the bottom of the second inning when Stefen Henderson launched one way over the left-field wall for his second home run of the year. It also moved him into sole possession of first-place on the all-time home run list for the Knights, finally ahead of Chris Vargas, who played two seasons in 2009-10. But Grand Canyon added two runs on only one hit in the third inning, using two walks and a Pomeroy triple to go up 4-1. 

Two innings later Grand Canyon opened the floodgates. The inning started out inconspicuously enough, as Broadstreet got two quick outs. But the Lopes sent 10 in a row to the plate after that, scoring eight runs on seven hits and taking advantage of two Urban Knights errors to go up 12-1. Yoshi Uemura came in and eventually got out of it, but that inning spilled over into the sixth inning when GCU got the first seven runners on base before an out was recorded, ultimately adding seven more runs to make it 19-1. The inning ended when Tanner Hoechlin tried to stretch a double into a triple but the Johnathan Robbins and Zach Babitt teamed up to gun him down at third.

Academy of Art did get two runs back in the bottom half of the seventh, using RBI singles by Johnathan Robbins and Kenny Rollins to get two runs on the board. But the damage was done, and the Lopes cruised over the last three innings to come away with the win. Niko Leite and Reyes both had two hits for the Urban Knights.


A couple weeks ago head coach Brian Guinn tapped Spencer Roland to make the fourth start after back-to-back doubleheaders, something that really presses teams like the Urban Knights who have a small bullpen. Roland responded with seven solid innings and earned his first win of his career against Hawaii Hilo. On Friday, Roland was asked to duplicate that feat, and while he pitched a solid game, giving up only four runs to a team that had scored 20 runs just hours before, the Urban Knights were unable to produce any offense behind him, and Roland (1-1) was saddled with the loss.

Roland was his usual methodical self, and in the second inning, much like they did against Broadstreet, the Lopes got a rally for free after a walk by Mendoza and an HBP by Garcia. Harlyn Griffiths hit an infield fly, but then both runners advanced on a wild pitch, and a single and a sacrifice fly brought in both runners to put GCU up 2-0. They duplicated that feat an inning later, when Garcia singled in Joey Bristyan and Griffiths followed with an RBI double to make it 4-0 Lopes.

That was all the support Grand Canyon starter Jorge Perez needed, as the Knights continued to struggle to move runners over. Zach Babitt singled to lead off the game, and advanced to second base on a balk, but two groundouts and a flyout and he was stranded. After Babitt's single, Perez actually retired 15 Knights in a row, with the next hit coming from Bryce Hutchings in the bottom of the sixth inning. Myles Babitt followed with an infield hit, but Hutchings was caught taking too big of a turn around third base and was picked off to end that two-out rally. Academy of Art got one more hit from Robbins in the bottom of the seventh, but again were unable to bring him around as they fell 4-0.

The Urban Knights will play host to Hawaii Pacific on Monday and Tuesday in their final home games of 2012. Monday's first game will start at 4:00 PM. as will Tuesday's home finale before the season-ending road trip to Hawaii.