ST. GEORGE, Utah – With 20 runs between two games, the Dixie State baseball team swept an opening doubleheader Saturday against visiting Holy Names. The Storm held off a ninth-inning rally taking the series opener, 11-9, and followed with a game two nightcap win, 9-3.
 
DSU improves to 14-8 on the season and 9-1 in Pacific West Conference play while the Hawks dip to 11-15 on the year, 3-11 in league play.
 
Second baseman Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain) and left fielder Zach Watts (West Jordan, UT/Copper Hills) led the squad each going 3-for-4 in game one. Cam Gust (Riverton, UT/Riverton) blasted his first home run of the season to lead off the fourth inning while Sam Hall (Ogden, UT/Bonneville) singled and later scored on a wild pitch to give Dixie State its first lead, 3-2.
 
Holy Names scored three times in the top half of the seventh to retake an advantage, but DSU responded with eight unanswered run over the seventh and eighth innings. McLaughlin capped a string of three consecutive single plating Watts. Trey Kamachi (Kapolei, HI/Kapolei) laid down a bunt intended to be a sacrifice, but HNU starting pitcher Trent Carrier threw wild to third base on an attempted force allowing two runs to score. The final two runs of the frame scored on a Hayes Hall (Spanish Fork, UT/Spanish Fork) sacrifice fly and a RBI single from Yuto Kata (Chiba, Japan/Juan Diego (Utah)).
 
Donald Glover (Las Vegas, NV/Legacy) singled home a run in the following frame. Miles Bice (Henderson, NV/Coronado) also came through with a pinch-hit RBI double.
 
Kolton Brost (Monsa, UT/Payson) earned the winning decision in relief throwing four pitches and recording a strikeout. He improved to 2-0 after Evan Parker (Ogden, UT/Bonneville) shut down the Hawks after they plated four runs in the top of the ninth.
 
In game two, Tanner Morache (Surrey, Canada/Surrey) circled the bases with a triple down the right field line and a throwing error past third base. Kata doubled in Gust in the second and later scored from third on a wild pitch.
 
Kevin Kline (Las Vegas, NV/Rancho) blasted his fourth home run of the season in the fifth inning, a two-run shot to build a 6-2 lead.
 
Starting pitcher Dylan File (St. George, UT/Desert Hills) battled through a pair of rough innings to earn the winning decision (2-1). He allowed three runs on eight hits while fanning two. Relief pitching reigned supreme behind Brost and Rustin Sveum (Scottsdale, AZ/Desert Mountain). Brost struck out three over three innings while allowing one hit. Sveum scattered a hit and a walk before closing out a scoreless ninth inning.
 
Morache and Kata had the only multi-hit games in the nightcap.
 
HNU hit three home runs over the opening two games and outhit the hosts for the day, 27-26. Left fielder Matthew Dunford went 6-for-9 with four RBI to lead the Hawks.
 
The series concludes Sunday with a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. from Bruce Hurst Field.