Courtesy of Grand Canyon Athletics 

 

LOGAN, UT. – Grand Canyon’s historic seventh inning was more than enough to put away game one of three’s series at Utah State, beating the Aggies 15-3.

The Lopes scored ten runs on ten hits, with two separate streaks of five hits in a row in the top half of the seventh. GCU had not scored ten or more runs in an inning since 2018, when the Lopes brought home 11 runs in the 8th inning in a WAC Tournament victory over Utah Valley.

Grand Canyon only scored in two of the seven innings they came to the plate, adding the first five GCU runs in the third inning.

Utah State struck first in the bottom of the second, with two solo shots from Grace Matej and Kate Vance off of GCU’s starter Taryn Batterton. Batterton went 2 1/3 innings pitched with three strikeouts before being pulled.

The Lopes got the first three runners on in the third, with Sydney McCray and Jada Cooper drawing walks and Raegan Holtorf reaching on a fielding error in between the walks. Freshman right fielder Addison Shifflett took advantage with a full-count single up the middle to score two.

Trinity Martin followed the hit up with a sacrifice bunt and Gonzalez scored pinch-running Briah Williams from third base on a sacrifice fly. After a Tinley Lucas walk, junior shortstop Mackenzie Nolan smoked one off the wall in left-center field for a stand-up double, scoring runs four and five of the inning.

Nolan made her first start at shortstop since week two of the season, with Ellie Pond starting at third base. Nolan had two hits, both doubles, on the afternoon.

GCU had seven players with two hits, the most in a game this season. Every starter in the lineup recorded a hit, also a first in the 2026 season.

Freshman Abi Jones celebrated her birthday with a fantastic game in relief, taking over for Batterton in the third. She went 3 2/3 innings pitched only allowing one hit and striking out five batters, holding the lead at 5-2 for much of the game.

Jones earned the win, moving to 4-1 on the year with a 1.97 ERA as the go-to reliever for the Lopes this season.

The seventh inning blew the doors open, with ten runs sprung on Utah State fairly quickly. Of the ten hits in the inning, four of them came on the first pitch. Junior catcher Tinley Lucas highlighted the inning with a three-run no-doubt home run to start the inning and a 2-RBI double to cap it. She led the team in RBI’s with five.

Redshirt-freshman Haley Wilkinson started the game on the bench for the first time all season, but after pinch-running for Emily Gonzalez in the fifth inning, she remained in the game at shortstop and earned two hits in the seventh inning alone, including an RBI double near the end of the inning. McCray, Cooper, and Martin all added RBI singles in the inning.

Freshman Lilly Camp made her fifth appearance of the season, taking the bottom of the seventh. She allowed a home run and struck out a batter.

GCU moved to 7-0 in the Mountain West and 34-2 overall. They still hold a two-game lead over Nevada who is second place in the conference.

Grand Canyon and Utah State play game two Saturday at noon (UT) and 11 a.m. (AZ).