Utah Tech went toe-to-toe with its long-time rival Grand Canyon throughout a marathon WAC series opener, but came on the short end of a 4-2 decision in 12 innings on Friday night at the GCU Ballpark.
 
After battling the homestanding Lopes to a scoreless draw through the first three innings, the Trailblazers (9-28/4-12 WAC) managed to string together three two-out singles in the fourth to bolt out to a 2-0 advantage.
 
Chase Rodriguez singled with one out to start the rally, then after Zach Thomas reached on a base hit to left field, Sean Keating lined a single to center score Rodriguez from second for the game's first run.
 
Hank Dodson then stepped up and flared a bloop single to shallow center to chase home Thomas, who went first-to-third on the Keating hit.
 
Meanwhile, junior righthander Brett Porthan (ND) had it going on the bump, retiring nine of the first 11 Lopes he faced through the first three innings of his start.
 
The Lopes (20-18, 21-17/11-8, 12-7 WAC) would get one of those runs back on a Zach Yorke sacrifice fly in the fourth, and had a pair of runners on with one out in the fifth.
 
Porthan struck out Tyler Wilson for the second out before Jacob Wilson laced a 1-0 pitch to left field. 
 
Blazer outfielder Parker Schmidt got a great jump on the sinking line drive and was able to make a spectacular diving grab to rob GCU of at least one run and preserve the Utah Tech lead. 
 
GCU would eventually tie the game in the seventh when Zack Gregory doubled high of the right field wall. However the Trailblazers would escape the frame without further damage when reliever Jacob Taggart came on and induced a pair of ground outs to send the game to the eighth.
 
The game remained deadlocked at 2-2 until the GCU 12^th, when after a one-out Blazer error, GCU outfielder Cade Verdusco homered over the left field wall to end the game. 
 
Thomas finished the night 2-for-4 with a run scored to lead the Trailblazer offense, which tallied seven hits on the night. Meanwhile Shane Taylor extended his career-long hit streak to 18-straight games when he singled to lead off the game.
 
Porthan worked six innings complete, surrendering one run and five hits with three strikeouts, but did not figure in the decision. 
 
Friday night's game was Utah Tech's fourth extra-inning affair of the season (0-4), and was the second 12-inning game in the program's current NCAA Division I transition (4-3 all-time in 12 inning games). 
 
The two teams will play game two of their three-game WAC series on Saturday night beginning at 6:30 p.m. (PT).