Dixie State won for the fifth-straight time on its current eight-game Bay Area road trip as the Storm claimed game one of a four-game Pacific West Conference series at Holy Names University, 5-2, Thursday afternoon in Alameda, Calif. DSU, which has won seven-straight road games overall, improved to 18-5 on the season, 6-3 in PacWest play.

The Storm broke open a scoreless game with a two-out rally in the third inning as senior shortstop Tanner Morache (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada/Surrey HS) laced a double to right center and would come home an RBI-single off the bat of junior 2B Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain HS). DSU picked up another two-out run an inning later when sophomore catcher Jake Davison (Taylorsville, Utah/Taylorsville HS) singled home senior 1B Samuel Hall (Ogden, Utah/Bonneville HS) to extend the lead to 2-0.

Dixie State's pitching staff, which began the road trip shorthanded and was pitching in its fifth game in four days, made the early lead stand up. Junior righthander Sean Hardman (Pleasant Grove, Utah/American Fork HS) (W, 2-0) struck out five and held the Hawks to just one hit and one unearned run over his five innings of work in his first start of the season.

DSU would tack on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth as the Storm loaded the bases with one out in the frame. McLaughlin led off the inning with a single and after sophomore pinch hitter Cam Gust (Riverton, Utah/Riverton HS) and Hall were hit by pitches, junior outfielder Jerome Hill II (Pittsburg, Calif./Pittsburg HS) singled up the middle to drive home McLaughlin and Gust to stake Dixie State to a 4-1 lead.

Morache then provided the exclamation point as he connected for his second home run of the season in the ninth. Meanwhile, three Storm relievers combined to limit the Hawks to one unearned run and three hits over the final four innings to close out the game.

DSU outhit HNU 10-4 as McLaughlin finished three hits, while both of Morache's two hits went for extra bases to go with two runs scored.

Dixie State continues its series at HNU with a doubleheader Friday at 11 a.m. (PT), and will close the series with a single game Saturday at 11 a.m. (PT).