Baseball 3/21/2014 10:38:00 PM John Potter, Media Relations Assistant

DSU doubles up HPU, twice

Storm baseball earns Friday DH sweep. 6-3 and 4-2

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Tweet #DixieBase

ST. GEORGE, Utah – Dixie State ran its winning streak to seven games with a Pacific West Conference sweep of Hawaii Pacific in a doubleheader Friday at Bruce Hurst Field.

The Red Storm (18-11, 12-2) claimed a pair of double-up victories, 6-3 and 4-2, over the Sea Warriors to open a one-game lead over Azusa Pacific for the top spot in the PacWest.

DSU was offensively balanced with Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain), Tyler Blair (Henderson, NV/Green Valley) and Kris Kaplan (Las Vegas, NV/Cimarron Memorial) each recording three hits over the course of the two games.

In the first game, the Storm struck with two runs in the second inning when Yuto Kata (Chiba, Japan/Juan Diego (Utah)) plated Blair with an RBI groundout and Kaplan scored on a wild pitch.

The Red Storm then scored two more runs in the fifth when Trey Kamachi (Kapolei, HI/Kapolei) hit an RBI single and Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho) followed with a double to left center.

In the sixth inning, Dixie State pushed across two more runs to take a 6-0 lead. McLaughlin doubled to straight away center field cashing in Ty Johnson (Thousand Oaks, CA/Millennium) and Kata.

Junior right-hander Chance Abrath (Salt Lake City, UT/West) threw six hitless innings before running into trouble in the seventh. HPU's Kevin Lenik blasted a two-run home run highlighting a three-run frame. Taylor Stone (Sierra Vista, AZ/Buena (AZ)) worked out of a jam with the bases loaded inducing two groundball force outs at home and a liner to third.

Stone, Matt Hill (Cypress, CA/Pacifica) and Evan Parker (Ogden, UT/Bonneville) combined to keep the HPU bats quiet over the final three innings. Hill and Parker each struck out one batter. Abrath has won three consecutive starts (4-1) for DSU.

In the second game of the double header, the Red Storm had only two hits through the first five innings. Hawaii Pacific took a 2-0 lead with single runs in the second and third innings off starter John Conquy (Las Vegas, NV/Durango).

The momentum began to turn with two outs in the sixth innings. Kamachi doubled and reached third base after a potential inning-ending groundball from Kline was misplayed. Blair was able to drive the ball passed a diving attempt from the outfield for a two-run double to knot the game at 2-2.

Dixie State took the lead in the seventh inning when Kamachi drew a bases loaded walk. Dalton Gust (Riverton, UT/Cottonwood) added an RBI groundout in the eighth inning for a 4-2 lead.

The duo of Hill and Parker once again handled their business in the later innings. Hill produced three groundball outs in the eighth while Parker fanned the final two hitters he faced to earn his ninth save. Parker joined three former DSU pitchers – Daniel Zapata, Todd Morlock, and Josh Mooney (American Fork, UT/American Fork) – with nine season saves. DSU's current closer has 21 more games to take the top spot among DSU stoppers.

Hawaii Pacific fell to 14-8 on the year and 8-6 in the PacWest with the twinbill loss.

Dixie State hosts HPU for two more game on Saturday beginning at 4 p.m. from Hurst.

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