ST. GEORGE, Utah—On a windy desert night at Bruce Hurst Field, Dixie State baseball fans were treated to 34 hits and 26 runs in a single nine inning game.
To the delight of the mostly 339 Trailblazer fans, Dixie State had the majority of both during a 14-12 win. The Trailblazers led throughout, fending off each UH Hilo rally to improve to 14-18 on the season and to 10-12 in the Pacific West Conference. The Vulcans dropped to 11-15 on the year and to 7-11 in conference play.
Dixie State had 20 hits on the night and the Vulcans had 14.
Edison Sakata had three base knocks for UHH, and
Jonathan Segovia,
Phillip Steering and
Jaryn Kanbara had two each. Steering had two home runs and drove in three runners.
The Trailblazers put seven runs on the board in the second inning. After 11 hits and 1.2 innings of work,
Dylan Spain's night was done. Dixie State built a 10-3 lead through three innings and looked to be well on their way to an easy victory.
But the Vulcans got three runs back in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 10-6, and in the seventh
RJ Romo and Kanbara hit RBI-doubles to make it a 10-8 game. Dixie then answered with three runs in the bottom half, but the Vulcans got one back in the ninth, making it 14-9 heading into UH Hilo's final frame.
The Vulcans made one final burst. An error and a walk put runners on base, and Mano Manago singled home one of them to make it 14-11.
Kila Zuttermeister brought another runner home with a single up the middle, and Sakata had his third hit of the evening to bring home another (14-12). But a fly out ended the rally, with the Vulcans coming up two runs short in the slugfest.
Spain took the loss (2-4) as Dixie's Logan Porter led his offense with four hits, including a home run. Kyle Hoffman added three hits for the home team.
The two teams will wrap up the series on Saturday at noon Mountain time, the final conference games between the squads. Dixie State moves to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) next year.
