Kaplan offense leads to Friday split at Fresno Pacific

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FRESNO, Calif. – Kody Christoffersen (Ogden, UT/Weber) and Kris Kaplan (Las Vegas, NV/Cimarron Memorial) led Dixie State during Friday's nightcap to a 7-5 victory over Fresno Pacific after the host Sunbirds took the Pacific West Conference series opener 6-2 at FPU Diamond.

With the split, Dixie State moved to 27-11 on the year and 19-9 in the PacWest. Fresno Pacific got a solid outing from ace J.D. Salles (8 IP, 2R, 7H, 7 K) to sit a 22-17, 13-13 PacWest after one day of doubleheader action.

Kaplan went 5 for 7 on the evening, including 3 for 3 in the Storm victory. He had 2 RBI with singles to right field, including the go-ahead hit in the third. Cedric Johnson (Thatcher, AZ/Thatcher) added two runs knocked in with a third inning triple and a fifth inning single. Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho) continued his hot offensive play with five hits on the day, three in the nightcap.

Christoffersen allowed three runs on six hits to improve to 5-0 while Josh Mooney (American Fork, UT/American Fork) wrapped up save number eight with two strikeouts over 1.2 innings pitched.

In game one, the Red Storm had a 2-1 lead after five innings. Tyler Slesk (Bellingham, WA/Meridian) had an RBI groundout in the second frame and Colton Yack (South Jordan, UT/Bingham) pushed across Yuto Kata (Chiba, Japan/Juan Diego (Utah)) with a single to left field.

FPU took the lead in the sixth with a run crossing home on a double play ball. Back-to-back home runs in the seventh frame padded the Sunbird lead.

Mike Dedrick (Cedar City, UT/Canyon View) took just his second loss of the year (7-2) scattering six runs on 11 hits over seven innings.

The Pacific West series concludes Saturday with another doubleheader at 11 a.m. Pacific (noon MT).

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