WATERLOO - Prior to the start of the season, Northern Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller said Chris Lopez had "Ryan Brunner-type" power potential.

"If he's the guy we think he is, this team has a chance to be really scary offensively," Heller said in late February.

The Long Beach State transfer displayed the power Heller referred to Wednesday, going 4-for-5 with three home runs and five RBIs during UNI's 17-3 onslaught over NAIA foe Grand View College at Riverfront Stadium.

Lopez is the first Panther since Brunner, the school's all-time home run leader with 59 from 1998-2001, to go deep three times in a game.

"The rumor is, he called it before the game," winning pitcher Zach Zirbel said of Lopez's three homers. "After the first one, I heard him say in the dugout he was going to hit two more.

"His bat is so awesome for our lineup."

Batting cleanup - behind Brandon Douglas (.398 average) and ahead of Brett Featherston (.333), Lopez has seen plenty of good pitches. He's hitting .322 with a team-high six homers and 23 RBIs. Sixteen of his 29 hits have gone for extra bases.

"It's nice hitting between those two," Lopez said. "I don't think you can ask for anything better. These guys have proven themselves at this level. I'm lucky."

If anything, Heller believes Lopez has been unlucky.

"He's hit five or six balls where the wind was blowing in and the ball stayed in the park," said Heller, whose club has won 10 of its last 11 and is hitting .358 during that span. "His home run total could be really high.

"It's nice to have a guy in the four hole that can mishit the ball and still hit it out of the park. He has tremendous power."

Lopez wasn't the only one to feast on Viking pitching.

UNI (14-9) had 20 hits - 10 for extra bases. Deric Manrique and Featherston also clubbed homers for the Panthers, who matched a season high for runs and hits in a game.

Manrique, batting .559 (19-for-34) for the year in 11 games, was 4-for-6 with four runs scored, while Douglas went 2-for-4 with two doubles and four RBIs.

Grand View fell to 10-11 with the loss.

"I was really happy with our focus today," Heller said. "I thought it was tremendous from the time we got to the park. There was no messing around, and everybody was locked in."

Unlike a week ago when UNI lost to Division III Wisconsin-Platteville, Heller allowed his starting pitcher to work more than two innings.

"We couldn't let what happened last week happen again," he said. "We felt like we needed to make an adjustment and try something different. In mid-week games, it's crucial to throw strikes."

Zirbel pitched a season-high five innings, yielded just two hits and struck out six.

"It felt good," he said. "The defense backed me up, and I just tried to pitch to contact."

The Panthers now gear up for a seven-game road trip that starts Friday afternoon with a Missouri Valley Conference series at Indiana State (7-15, 3-3 MVC) and ends next weekend at Illinois State (10-13, 0-6).

"We have to play well," Heller said. "This weekend isn't make or break because there's a lot of games left and we're capable of beating anybody, but if we want to put ourselves in a position to make a run at the title, these next two weekends are critical."

PANTHER BITS: Lopez was the first Panther to score five runs in a game since Ben Fjelland did so against Northern State in 1999. … UNI catcher Eddie Almonte had his streak of consecutive innings behind home plate end at 160 2/3. With sophomore Jeremy Weih out this year because of injury and Ben Marshall no longer on the team, emergency catcher Brett Douglas caught the last four frames Wednesday. … In the past five games, Brandon Douglas is 12-for-21 with five doubles, seven runs and 10 RBIs. … Because of expected rain in Terre Haute, Ind., Friday night, the series opener between UNI-Indiana State has been moved up to a 2 p.m. start.

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com

Grand View ab r h bi N. Iowa ab r h bi

Habeger,ss 3 1 0 0 Manrique,cf 6 4 4 2

Perry,c 3 0 0 0 Ferguson,lf 2 1 0 0

Sullivan,c 1 0 0 0 Embury,lf 3 0 0 0

Stein,3b 3 0 0 0 BraDouglas,ss 4 2 2 4

Zeiser,3b 1 0 1 3 Ege,ph 2 1 1 0

Ogden,1b 3 0 1 0 Lopez,rf 5 5 4 5

Hayes,1b 1 0 0 0 Featherston,1b 2 2 1 2

Benson,dh 4 0 1 0 Johnson,ph 2 0 0 0

Rohrs,rf 3 0 0 0 BreDouglas,2b 4 0 2 2

Gardiner,rf 1 0 0 0 Almonte,c 4 0 2 1

O'Neal,cf 2 0 1 0 Davis,2b 2 0 0 0

Mohler,cf 1 0 0 0 Hendrix,3b 6 1 2 1

Cutler,2b 3 1 0 0 Steichen,dh 4 1 2 0

Burnes,lf 2 1 1 0 Kieger,dh 0 0 0 0

Totals 31 3 5 3 Totals 46 17 20 17

Grand View 000 000 030 - 3 5 2

Northern Iowa 426 301 01x - 17 20 0

E - Stein, Zeiser. DP - UNI 1. LOB - Grand View 5, UNI 12. 2B - Zeiser (1), O'Neal (2); Bra. Douglas 2 (13), Almonte (6), Steichen (2), Bre. Douglas (2). HR - Lopez 3 (6), Manrique (3), Featherston (5). SB - Manrique 2 (7).

Pitching summary IP H R ER BB SO

Grand View

Chace (L,2-1) 2.1 10 11 10 3 1

Spencer 5.2 10 6 5 3 3

Northern Iowa

Zirbel (W,2-0) 5.0 2 0 0 2 6

O'Leary 2.0 1 0 0 0 0

Worner 0.0 1 3 3 2 0

Flattery 1.0 1 0 0 0 2

Gonzalez 1.0 0 0 0 0 0

WP - Spencer 3. HBP - by Chace (Bre. Douglas).

U - Chris Oberbrocking (plate); Ryan Myers (bases).

T - 2:34. Att - 126.