WAIPAHU, Hawaii – Dixie State baseball maintained their three game lead in the Pacific West Conference standings by splitting a doubleheader Wednesday against Hawaii Pacific at Hans L’Orange Park.
The Red Storm felt an early offensive wrath from the well-rested Sea Warriors in the game one defeat, 9-3. Solid relief pitching kept DSC in an extended second game victory 7-5 in 11 innings.
The split pushed Dixie State to 20-10 overall and a Pac West-best 16-6 in league play. HPU sits at 14-15 on the year, but in the conference hunt at 11-7.
In the opener, DSC sophomore Mike Dedrick was tagged for nine runs on 12 hits while striking out four. The loss puts Dedrick at 3-3 for the season. Sophomore reliever Bryce Anderson threw four scoreless innings allowing only one hit, a double.
The DSC bats were silenced by Michael Greene – the starter carried a no-hitter through six innings.
Down 9-0 in the seventh inning, the DSC offense attempted a comeback. Tony Nelson broke up the no-no with a leadoff single and later scored as HPU committed an error on a grounder by Ammon Zitting with two outs. Colton Yack tallied the second run knocking in Rhett Welsh with a single to left field.
Welsh added an RBI single in the eighth inning plating Tyson Littlewood, who led off the frame with a double.
The Sea Warriors prevented any further DSC offense retiring three of four batters in the ninth. Greene’s quality start earned the win. He scattered two unearned runs on three hits over seven innings.
Game two saw HPU jump out to a first inning lead with Blake Amaral’s RBI triple.
The Red Storm capitalized on two errors and a dropped third strike to score five runs in the third despite having just one hit. Two opening walks to Eric Bond and Nick Urban began in the frame. Zitting laid down a sacrifice bunt, but an error by the first baseman allowed Zitting aboard. Trevor Goff bounced a ball to second, yet another error scored Bond. Urban scored on a wild pitch. The bases would reload after a Littlewood walk. The only hit of the inning came from Nelson – a two-run single to center. Littlewood placed an exclamation mark on the inning by stealing home.
HPU scored four times in their half of the fourth to knot the game at 5-5.
The game remained tied until the 11th inning. Trevor Goff provided the go-ahead single to left field scoring Jordan Hanley. Chase Pittsenbarger added an insurance tally with an RBI single.
Daniel Zapata closed out three innings of relief by holding the Warriors scoreless to earn his third win in relief.
The teams meet up for a series-closing doubleheader Thursday beginning at 4:30 p.m. Mountain time in Waipahu.