Colato hopes to make up for his lost 2021 regional
Juan Colato might have been the happiest guy in the room Monday when it was announced on ESPN2 that Grand Canyon baseball had made a regional.
The fifth-year utility player who is leading the Antelopes in hitting finally gets his chance to play in the NCAA baseball tournament. He missed out last year after suffering an injury in the WAC Tournament and could only watch from the dugout as GCU lost its first two games of the Tucson Regional to Arizona and Oklahoma State.
GCU (41-19) will be playing in Stillwater, Oklahoma, starting Friday against Arkansas in the four-team regional that also features top seed Oklahoma State and fourth-seeded Missouri State.
The GCU-Arkansas game will start at 10 a.m., Arizona time and be televised on the SEC Network.
The Lopes are the third seed. They’re just ecstatic to be invited, having to wait it out after bowing out of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in the semifinals, losing to Abilene Christian twice in less than 24 hours.
Because of their overall body of work, beating teams like Stanford, Oregon State, Arizona and Texas Tech, GCU landed an at-large spot.
That gave an extra jolt of excitement for the No. 2 hitter in the lineup, who sustained an ankle injury early in last year’s WAC Tournament, which GCU won.
Colato is ready to contribute, coming in with a team-best .384 batting average.
“Having gone to Oregon State and Arizona and playing Stanford, this is nothing new to me,” said Colato, who came to Arizona from El Salvador. “Any time you got to play an SEC ballclub (Arkansa), that’s super fun. You know they’re going to show out because it’s not too far for their fans to travel.
“That’s what makes it more fun.” GCU won’t have the fan support it had in Tucson last year with the short distance to travel.
O’Brate Stadium on the Oklahoma State campus is one of the better college baseball facilties in the nation, where
seating can be expanded to 8,000. Fans come out in droves to support the Cowboys.
Arkansas (38-18) also draws good crowds. And with it being a less-thanthree-hour drive to Stillwater, a lot of fans are expected to root against GCU.
This is the Razorbacks’ 33rd national tournament appearance and first regional since 2015. They come from a conference that has nine teams in the NCAA Tournament.
GCU is happy to hit the reset button after the way things ended in the WAC Tournament.
“We felt we got a little bit of a reprieve,” coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “We’re playing historically great programs.
“There will be a lot of Arkansas folks over there. We know. That’s the environment you want to play in. Let’s go play the big boys and go for it.”
This is why GCU plays big schools in the regular season every year. This year, the Lopes seized it, going 7-4 against elite Power 5 programs that basically told the selection committee they earned their way into the regional.
They went 21-6 on the road and 3-3 at neutral sites.
Colato has made the most of returning for a redshirt senior year. He has 16 doubles, seven home runs and 50 RBIs.
When GCU found out it’s going to Stillwater, players were excited to get to practice.
“Thank God we made it,” Colato said. “We always want to do good at that stage to represent this program in a good way. We don’t take this opportunity for granted.”
Stankiewicz, who will choose between graduate Nick Hull and freshman Daniel Avitia to start the first game on the mound, said the team might have had its best practice of the season on Monday.
Center fielder Homer Bush Jr., who is hitting .279, is ready to make the most of his first opportunity to play in the national tournament.
“Getting that fresh start is going to be huge for us,” Bush said.
“We’re excited about getting this opportunity. At this point anything can happen. You’re five wins away from Omaha.”