ST. GEORGE, Utah – The Dixie State baseball team was one pitch away from taking a tied ballgame into the bottom of the eighth inning, but visiting Cal Poly Pomona knocked a critical two-out hit to win Saturday's doubleheader opener, 4-2. The Broncos scored four times in the third innings of the second game and cruised to the doubleheader sweep, 10-4.
 
Dixie State fell to 0-3 on the young season and dropping a sixth straight to CPP over the past two seasons.
 
After five scoreless innings in game one, both teams struck for two runs apiece in the sixth inning. CPP notched their runs on an opposite field home run by center fielder Kyle Garlick. Dixie State responded with a Tanner Morache (Surrey, Canada/Surrey) RBI double following a leadoff walk by Yuto Kata (Chiba, Japan/Juan Diego (Utah)). With two outs, Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho) walked advancing Morache to third. Another wild pitch plated Morache to tie the game.
 
Cal Poly Pomona pushed across the go-ahead run when Scott Padlo lined a single into right field off DSU closer Evan Parker (Ogden, UT/Bonneville) for a 3-2 lead. An insurance run plated in the ninth inning.
 
Freshman hurler Jordan Dreibelbis (Las Vegas, NV/Faith Lutheran) took the losing decision (0-1) as his runner scored the go-ahead run in the eighth.
 
The Red Storm tallied three hits – one from Morache and two from Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain).
 
In game two, the Storm jumped out to a 3-1 lead after three innings. Morache led off the first frame with a double and scored on an infield RBI single from Trey Kamachi (Kapolei, HI/Kapolei). Donald Glover (Las Vegas, NV/Legacy) blasted the first pitch of the second inning over the right field wall for a home run, the first for a DSU player this season. Glover added a second RBI with a two-out single in the third inning.
 
CPP's Jacob Bernardy lined a two-out double in a four-run third inning that saw the visitors string out nine of the next 10 runs posted on the Bruce Hurst Field scoreboard.
 
Miles Bice (Henderson, NV/Coronado) plated the final DSU tally with a single, scoring Glover.
 
Freshman starter Aaron Pope (Chubbuck, ID/Highland) allowed six runs, three earned, on eight hits over 3.1 innings. Glover paced the Storm with three hits while Kamachi added two singles.
 
The series finale is Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Freshman pitcher and hometown product, Dylan File (St. George, UT/Desert Hills), is expected to take the hill in a starting role for Dixie State.