PROVO, Utah — Gonzaga baseball came up with two runs in the 11^th inning to beat BYU 4-2 in the teams' West Coast Conference opener on Thursday in Provo, Utah.
 
Gonzaga couldn't hold a one-run lead in the ninth, but Ernie Yake came through with a huge two-run double in the 11^th to propel Gonzaga to the win.
 
"We got outstanding pitching tonight from Mason Wells, Nick Trogrlic-Iverson and Alek Jacob," head coach Mark Machtolf said. "The offense did a great job battling and extending at-bats against Jordan Wood tonight. We came up with some big timely hits when we needed to answer and get the win."
 
Freshman left-hander Wells got his first career start and pitched like a veteran, holding BYU to just one run on five hits thru 5.1 innings of work. He struck out four and walked just one, exiting with the game tied at 1-1. Trogrlic-Iverson went the next 2.2 innings of scoreless relief and Jacob earned the win after pitching the final 3.1 innings.
 
The Zags answered BYU's fourth-inning run with their own in the fifth when Yake brought home Nyquist with a groundout to tie the score at 1-1.
 
After 2.2 scoreless innings in the mound for Trogrlic-Iverson, who came on for Wells in the 6th, GU finally got back on the board in the ninth. Brett Harris started the inning with a single and moved to second on a sac bunt, and then Nyquist again put the Zags in position to win with an RBI single up the middle. That came two days after Nyquist hit a three-run homer to help beat Utah on Tuesday.
 
Closer Alek Jacob came on in the ninth to shut down and had two outs, but a dropped popup allowed the tying run to score.
 
The teams were scoreless in the 10^th, and then came Yake's big hit in the 11^th to put GU ahead for good.
 
Gonzaga and BYU will play the second of a three-game series on Friday at 5 p.m. PT/6 p.m. MT. Links to live coverage will be available at GoZags.com.