Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Utah Tech University Athletics

Dorantes
Copyright - Rico Del Sesto

Baseball John Potter, Media Relations Assistant

Kaplan homers twice, but Cougars win offensive battle

Storm win streak snapped

Box Score

ST. GEORGE, Utah – Dixie State spurted out to a decent lead, but eight runs in the fifth inning led to 10 unanswered runs by the visiting Cougars. Despite a pair of solo home runs from Kris Kaplan (Las Vegas, NV/Cimarron Memorial), the Red Storm lost for the first time in 14 games with a 12-9 decision in the opener of a four-game Pacific West Conference series.
 
The Storm fell to 24-12 on the year and 18-3 in league play.
 
DSU led 8-2 after four innings, getting to APU starter Josh Staumont. Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain) brought in the first two runs in the second inning when his infield single coupled with a Cougar error plated Tyler Blair (Henderson, NV/Green Valley) and Ty Johnson (Thousand Oaks, CA/Millennium).
 
Kaplan hit the first of his two solo shots with two outs in the third for a 3-0 lead. Mike Umscheid (Beaverton, OR/Sunset) provided the highlight hit during a five-run fourth inning with a two-run single to left center. Dixie State led 8-2 heading into the fateful APU fifth.
 
Chance Abrath (Salt Lake City, UT/West) worked through jams in the first and second innings with key strikeouts, but he surrendered five consecutive hits that led to five runs tagged to his pitching line. Kevin Dorantes (Las Vegas, NV/Cimarron Memorial) entered from the bullpen and could not contain the APU offensive buzzsaw. He allowed the Cougars' go-ahead run to cross home on a two-out single.
 
Azusa Pacific (19-10, 12-5) added a pair of runs in the seventh to end a string of 10 runs with out a DSU response. Kaplan provided a response blasting his second solo bomb to left field to pull the Red Storm within three runs.
 
The APU trio of Bill Sanford, Mike Farichild and Luis Martinez held Dixie State to one run and three hits over the final 5.1 innings. Sanford earned the win in relief while Martinez tabbed his fifth save.
 
Dorantes took his first loss of the year, falling to 3-1.
 
The teams combined for 30 hits, with Azusa Pacific holding the advantage in that stat 17-13.
 
The teams return to Bruce Hurst Field on Friday for a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m.
 
Print Friendly Version