No. 22 Dixie State rallied for two seventh-inning runs to pick up its third-straight win with a 5-4 decision over Concordia-Irvine in the opening game of a four-game Pacific West Conference series Friday night at Bruce Hurst Field. 

Junior starter Dylan File (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) (ND) had it going early as he faced the minimum through his first 2.2 innings of work, but a two-out walk proved costly as the Eagles (5-11/2-4 PacWest) cashed in the free pass with a Ryan Land RBI-double to take a 1-0 lead.

The Trailblazers (15-4/5-1 PacWest), who had stranded seven baserunners through its first four offensive frames, looked as if they had something brewing in the fifth as DSU led off the stanza with three-straight hits. However Dixie State only managed to come away with one run, which came on a Logan Porter (Surprise, Ariz./Valley Vista HS) RBI-single that pulled DSU even at 1-1.

Dixie State would strike again with three-straight safeties to lead off the sixth, including a Jake Engel (Tucson, Ariz./Ironwood HS) run-scoring single that put the Trailblazers on top by a 2-1 margin. Jake Davison (Taylorsville, Utah/Taylorsville HS) then gave DSU a two-run cushion at 3-1 with a bloop single two batters later.

That lead would disappear in the CUI seventh as a crucial one-out DSU throwing error on the infield led to three unearned runs and spelled the end of the night for File as the Eagles reclaimed the lead at 4-3.

The Trailblazer bats would pick up the defense in the home half of the frame. Cam Gust (Riverton, Utah/Riverton HS) reached on a pinch-hit two-out double, which brought up Tyler Mildenberg (Huntington Beach, Calif./Marina HS), who pounced on the first pitch he saw from CUI reliever Cade Temple (L, 1-2) for a towering two-run home run to right field to put DSU back on top at 5-4.

DSU relievers Walker Williams (Grand Junction, Colo./Fruita Monument HS) (W, 2-0) and Tanner Howell (Boulder City, Nev./Boulder City HS) (S, 1) would then combine to retire six of the final eight Eagle hitters of the game to close out the win.

Davison paced the DSU offense with three hits, including a pair of doubles, while Mildenberg, Trey Kamachi (Kapolei, Hawai'i/Kapolei HS) and Reece Lucero (Albuquerque, N.M./La Cueva HS) collected two hits apiece. File struck out six and scattered six hits and four runs (one earned) in 6.2 innings of work.

DSU and CUI will continue their four-game set with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 4 p.m., at Bruce Hurst Field.