ST. GEORGE — The baseball team at Utah Tech got a nice shot in the arm with a series win over in-state and Western Athletic Conference rival Utah Valley last weekend.
The Trailblazers won two of three against their “Old Hammer” rivals and improved to 11-32 overall and 6-15 in WAC play.
Utah Tech 8, Utah Valley 2
Strong pitching and timely extra base hits helped Utah Tech roll to an 8-2 victory in the final game of the series Sunday at Bruce Hurst Field.
The visiting Wolverines (23-20, 9-10) took an early 1-0 lead but the Trailblazers answered with three in the first and two more runs in the second to jump ahead 5-1.
Parker Schmidt led off the home half of the first with a triple, then later scored on the back end of a botched double-steal attempt.
Chase Rodriguez tripled as well and scored on a wild pitch. Then Tyson Fisher finished the 3-spot first with his 40th career home run, his team-leading eighth of the season.
Schmidt’s two-run blast in the second upped the Utah Tech lead to four, then the Blazers extended it to 6-1 in the fourth inning on Blake Borgogno’s RBI ground out.
Borgogno’s RBI double in the fifth made it 7-2 for the home team.
Rodriguez launched his second homer of the series and fifth of the year in the seventh inning to provide the final margin for Utah Tech.
After Utah Tech’s pitchers surrendered 31 runs and 34 hits over the first two games of the series, Trailblazer hurlers limited the Wolverines to just two runs and nine hits on Sunday.
Freshman righthander Dakoda West struck out three in three innings of work then gave the ball to junior righthander Ryan Hardman, who fanned four and yielded one run off three to collect the win on the hill.
Senior Jake Dahle earned his second save as he threw three shutout innings against UVU, striking out four to close out the win.
Utah Valley 23, Utah Tech 5
Sunday’s series-clincher helped the Trailblazers get rid of the foul taste of Saturday’s 23-5 demolition by UVU.
The Wolverines ambushed the Trailblazers with 11 first-inning runs. The first nine UVU hitters reach base safely to open the contest. In all, UVU sent 15 batters to the plate in the inning with 10 of them recording base hits.
Utah Tech managed just five hits in the defeat. One of them was a solo homer off of Garrett Cutting’s bat in the fifth. Meanwhile, Sean Keating drove in a pair of runs with a single when the Trailblazers plated three in the bottom of the third.
Utah Tech 13, Utah Valley 8
The rivalry series started Friday night at Bruce Hurst Field when the Trailblazers dispatched the Wolverines 13-8.
Utah Tech smacked six home runs to power the victory, the most homers in a single game since the program’s transition to NCAA Division I status. The performance was second in history to the seven dingers in a road win at Adams State (Alamosa, Colorado) during the 2019 season.
In addition, the six home runs on Friday night were hit by six different Trailblazers, the top-six in the batting order, which is a new school record. The six homers in one game were the most hit at Bruce Hurst Field by Utah Tech (and before then Dixie State) in program history.
Parker Schmidt, Zach Thomas, Sean Keating, Chase Rodriguez, Shane Taylor and Tyson Fisher all went yard for Utah Tech in the victory.
Junior righthander Brett Porthan collected his fifth pitching win of the year (5-3), striking out seven Wolverines and yielding six runs off of nine hits. Jacob Taggart earned his first save for UT after he retired six of the final seven UVU batters he faced to end the game.
The top-six hitters in UT’s lineup finished 12-for-26 in the contest with nine extra-base hits, 11 RBI and 10 runs scored. The Trailblazers outhit the Wolverines 15-12.
The Trailblazers remain in last place in the WAC standings while Sam Houston is at the top of the conference mountain at 18-6.
Utah Tech is on the road this weekend for a three-game WAC set against Abilene Christian University (26-16, 11-10).
Then the Trailblazers return home to St. George for their last homestand of the year, three WAC games against Seattle University scheduled for May 12-14.
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