Grand Canyon wins marathon opener at Utah Valley

Friday, May 12

Orem, Utah

5:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

26-23, 19-3

Utah Valley

15-31, 8-11

Grand Canyon

Utah Valley

5/12/2017 11:12:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Josh Hauser

OREM, Utah - It took nearly five and a half hours, but the Grand Canyon baseball team gutted out a 10-7 victory over Utah Valley in 11 innings in the series opener on Friday night. Ian Evans drove in the go-ahead run on a double to the gap as a part of a three-run 11th inning for GCU. Mick Vorhof tossed 3.2 scoreless innings of relief down the stretch en route to his third win of the season. Grand Canyon improved to 19-3 in conference play.

"It was a really gutsy, gritty performance by our guys," head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. "It wasn't real pretty. We afforded them some extra opportunities. You have to tip your cap to Mick Vorhof, AJ Franks, Josh Andrews; our relieving corps did a nice job. They made some big pitches when they had to."

In the top of the 11th, the inning started on the right note with Tom Lerouge reaching after being hit by a pitch. Evans plated the go-ahead run on a double to the gap. Greg Saenz singled up the middle to plate one more, and Griffin Barnes capped off the scoring with a ground-rule double -- initially ruled a home run -- to put the Lopes on top 10-7.

To get to that point, however, the Lopes were forced to work their way out of several precarious situations late in the game. In the seventh, Franks drew a ground ball that he fielded himself and started a double play to end the inning. Vorhof coaxed a looking strikeout to end the eighth with two runners on. Zach Malis keyed a 5-3 double play to end the ninth and force extras. Vorhof came up with a big strikeout to strand the bases loaded on a full count in the 10th. Mick also had to work his way out of a small jam in the 11th after the Wolverines led off with back-to-back singles. Grand Canyon pitchers stranded 19 Utah Valley runners on base.

Offensively, Garrison Schwartz went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, providing the Lopes' offensive spark early in the contest. He also drew a walk in the pivotal 11th inning, reaching base for the fifth time in the game. The junior saw his average improve to .397 in WAC games.

"Garrison did a great job swinging the bat tonight," Stankiewicz said. "He stayed within himself and used the whole field. It's good to see him getting in a groove."

GCU starting pitcher Jake Wong didn't get out to the start he was looking for, allowing Utah Valley to pick up five runs in the first two frames. However, Wong collected himself and pitched scoreless frames in the third and fourth to make the task at hand a little more manageable for the bullpen.

"Wong did a real nice job of realizing he wasn't himself but saying, 'let me just get some zeroes on the board,' so that way we could go to our bullpen," Stankiewicz said.

Grand Canyon struck first in the opening frame. After Austin Bull drew a leadoff walk, Schwartz scored Bull on a two-out, two-strike RBI single to right field to put the Lopes in front 1-0.

The Wolverines quickly responded with a four-hit first inning, scoring two runs on an infield single to grab a 2-1 lead. Utah Valley tacked on three more runs on three hits in the second to make it a 5-1 lead.

GCU began chipping away in the top of the third, plating a pair of runs to pull within two. Lerouge and Evans each reached base with one away. Schwartz collected his second RBI of the day on a double to score Lerouge, while a single by Preston Pavlica scored Evans.

Grand Canyon added another run in the fourth to pull within a run. After a leadoff double from Griffin Barnes, he scored on a sacrifice fly by Bull.

After the Wolverines scored a single run in the fifth to extend their lead to two, Lerouge came through with a clutch, two-run, two-out double to the wall, scoring Bull and Malis. The Lopes tied the score at six.

Both sides scored a run to knot the score up once again at seven. Schwartz led off the seventh with a solo home run to left-center field, his eighth long ball of the season. After Schwartz's homer, the Lopes and Wolverines went scoreless until the decisive 11th inning.

The game clocked in at 5 hours and 25 minutes, by far the longest since GCU's return to Division I in 2013 (previously 4:39 vs. Seattle U, 2015).

Utah Valley recorded 22 hits on the night, 20 of which were singles. Trevor Peterson and Trevor Howell combined to go 9-for-13 atop the Wolverines' lineup.

For Grand Canyon, Schwartz was joined by Lerouge, Evans, Saenz and Barnes with multi-hit efforts. Lerouge tied a career-high with a 14-game hit streak, the longest for any Lopes' batter this season.

The two teams will meet up again on Saturday afternoon with a chance for Grand Canyon to win the series. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. MST once again at Brent Brown Ballpark.