(ST. GEORGE, Utah – March 25, 2025) Utah Tech baseball weathered a late-inning Utah rally to come away with a hard-fought 12-8 home victory on Tuesday afternoon at Bruce Hurst Field.

The Trailblazers (15-13) led wire-to-wire, striking for single runs in both the first and third innings on a pair of Aaron Perez RBI-singles, before breaking the game open with a five-run fourth to bolt out to a 7-0 advantage.

Utah Tech scored all five of those runs with two outs in the frame, with two of those tallies coming on a two-run Ryan Kroepel single with the bases loaded.

Hunter Katschke then stepped up and cleared the bases one pitch later with his team-leading sixth home run of the season, a three-run blast over the wall in right center.

Meanwhile, junior lefthander Brock Roundy (W, 2-0) held the Utes at bay in the early going, fanning five while allowing only two hits over his first four innings of work.

Utah (13-10) spoiled a possible shutout bid in the fifth thanks to a two-out Austen Roellig run-scoring double.

However the Blazers clapped back with two more runs in the fifth on a Petey Soto Jr. RBI-single and a Kroepel sacrifice fly out that extended the Utah Tech lead to 9-1.

Then after a scoreless sixth, the Utes came storming back with seven-unanswered runs against the Trailblazer bullpen over the next two innings to close to within a run at 9-8.

Six of those runs came in the Utah eighth, during which the Blazers issued four walks and surrendered three hits and committed one crucial error, as the Utes sent 10 batters to the plate in the rally.

Utah Tech managed to get up off the deck in the home eighth and tagged the Utah pen for three two-out insurance runs to push its lead to 12-8.

Ty Johnsen was plunked on a 1-2 pitch to start the rally and later scampered to third on a Levi Randall double to right field.

Soto Jr. followed the Randall two-bagger with an opposite field single to right on an 0-2 pitch to chase home both base runners and make it a three-run game.

Pinch hitter Finnegan Stewart then added the exclamation point one pitch later with a towering double off the wall in right center to bring Soto Jr. around to score.

Kroepel, who started the game at third base, moved to the mound in the ninth and after a one-out hit batter, ended the game with a 4-6-3 double play as the Blazers closed the month of March winners of eight of their last 10 games overall.

Kroepel, Katschke and Soto Jr. each drove in three runs, while Perez, Randall and Soto Jr. pounded out two hits apiece, as Utah Tech outhit Utah by an 11-8 count.

Utah Tech will enjoy a bye weekend in Western Athletic Conference play before traveling north on Interstate-15 to Salt Lake City for a return road game at Utah next Tuesday, April 1. First pitch at Smith’s Ballpark will be thrown at 4 p.m. (MT).

LINESCORE – (March 25, 2025)

Utah at Utah Tech

at Bruce Hurst Field; St. George, Utah

Utah                         000 010 160    8   8   2

Utah Tech                 101 520 03x   12 11  1

Gazaway, Culver (3), Wall (4), Stockman (5), Fine (5), Joyner (8) and Kleveno and Kilgore (6). Roundy, Ray (6), Hawkes (8), Kelly (8), Kroepel (9) and Johnsen. W – Roundy (2-0). L – Gazaway (0-1). S – None. 2B – UU, Roellig, Digiorno; UTU, Randall, Stewart. HR – UU, Jackson (3); UTU, Katschke (6). T – 3:19. A – 919.