No. 14 Dixie State put a winning bow on its 2016 regular season as the Trailblazers claimed a hard-fought 5-4 victory over Concordia in 10 innings Sunday afternoon in Irvine, Calif. DSU took three of four from the Eagles in the series to improve to 38-12 overall, 26-10 in Pacific West Conference play.

DSU jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to an RBI-single from Samuel Hall (Ogden, Utah/Bonneville HS) in the first inning, followed by a Tanner Morache (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada/Surrey HS) run-scoring ground out in the second. Senior lefthander Kolton Brost (Mona, Utah/Payson HS) (ND), who was making just his second start of the season in 25 total appearances, made that early lead stand up as he retired nine of the first 11 Eagles he faced and only needed 52 pitches to get through five innings.

However Concordia (21-29/17-19 PacWest) solved Brost in the sixth as the Eagles led off the inning with consecutive base hits. After a sacrifice bunt moved the base runners over, John Bornhop singled home the runners to pare the DSU lead to 3-2. Trailblazer reliever Tyler Burdett (Las Vegas, Nev./Sierra Vista HS) then came on worked around a two-out error to get Dixie State out of further trouble.

The Trailblazers got one of the runs back in the seventh when Reece Lucero (Albuquerque, N.M./La Cueva HS) reached on a lead-off double and pinch runner Kade Cloward (South Jordan, Utah/Bingham HS) scored on an Eagle infield error to push the advantage to 4-2.

CUI would take advantage of a DSU error in the home half of the frame as a two-out wild pitch brought the Eagles home an unearned run to cut the deficit to 4-3. Concordia then tied the score at 4-4 in the eighth as DSU was charged with three more errors in the stanza, though the Trailblazers were able to escape by allowing just the one run.

After a scoreless ninth inning, Dixie State manufactured the go-ahead run in the 10^th. Ryan Rodriguez (Folsom, Calif./Vista Del Lago HS) led off the inning with a single, then after a Miles Bice (Henderson, Nev./Coronado HS) sacrifice and Jerome Hill II (Pittsburg, Calif./Pittsburg HS) infield hit moved Rodriguez to third, the junior DH scored on a passed ball to give DSU back the lead. CUI got the potential tying run on base with a one-out single in the bottom of the 10^th, but senior reliever Spencer Greer (Woodinville, Wash./Woodinville HS) (W, 3-2) induced an game-ending 6-4-3 double play to clinch the series win.

Lucero and Hill II each collected two hits as DSU outhit Concordia 9-8 for the game. Brost struck out two and scattered two runs and five hits over 5.2 innings in his final regular season appearance, while Greer surrendered just the one unearned run and three hits in three innings of relief to earn the victory.

Dixie State, which is ranked second in the NCAA Division II West Region, will now wait to find out if it will advance to its fifth-straight NCAA West Regional, which will be held May 19-22 at a site that has yet to be determined. The official NCAA Tournament announcement will be made in two weeks on Sunday, May 15.

GAME NOTES: Dixie State picked up its ninth series victory of the season overall, which includes four four-game sweeps ... DSU also improved to 6-2 in extra-inning games, including a 4-1 mark in PacWest play ... junior 2B Drew McLaughlin (Scottsdale, Ariz./Desert Mountain HS) became DSU's new single-season hits leader with a base hit in Sunday's finale ... McLaughlin entered the day tied with Morache, who originally broke the record earlier this season ... McLaughlin now has 84 hits, one ahead of Morache (83) ... McLaughlin, who is DSU's career hits leader (210), also became the first DSU player in the program's D-II era to amass 600-plus at-bats ... Morache was held hitless Sunday, but he did draw two walks to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 39-straight games and he has reached base safely in 48 of 50 games overall ... Morache had at least one base hit in 45 of 50 games this season, while McLaughlin had a hit in 44 of 50 games ... Dixie State finished the regular season with 14 road victories (14-6 overall), one game shy of tying its school record of 15 road wins set last season ... DSU has now played 499 games since becoming an NCAA Division II program in 2006-07, and is 319-180 (.639) overall.