Game Times (Mountain):
(G1) Friday - 6 p.m.
(G2) Saturday - 2 p.m.
(G3) Saturday - 5 p.m.
(G4) Sunday - 12 noon (SENIOR DAY)
Game Notes: DIXIE STATE - PDF | CCU
Audio/Video: LIVE VIDEO HERE
Live Stats: vs. CCU
Twitter: @DixieAthletics | @Dixie_Baseball | #DixieBlazers | #RMACbase | #D2Baseball
 
PROBABLE STARTERS:
Friday (G1) – RHP Jayden Murray (8-2, 3.80 ERA) vs. RHP Alex Ginn (3-4, 6.96 ERA)
Saturday (G2) – RHP Preston Hannay (5-3, 6.02 ERA) vs. RHP Zach Haning (0-4, 6.93 ERA)
Saturday (G3) – LHP Jack Gonzales (5-2, 6.25 ERA) vs. RHP Justin Kiedinger (2-2, 3.67 ERA)
Sunday (G4) – RHP Brayden Bonner (2-1, 3.20 ERA) vs. RHP Evan Fink (0-5, 9.96 ERA)

FIRST PITCH: Dixie State (28-14/18-10 RMAC) closes its 2019 regular season home slate this weekend with a four-game series vs. Colorado Christian (12-29/7-21 RMAC) at Bruce Hurst Field. The series opener will be played on Friday night at 6 p.m., followed by a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m., and Sunday's finale will take place at 12 noon.
    Sunday's series finale will also serve as "Senior Day" for 10 Trailblazer seniors - outfielders Brody Clifford, Kade Cloward and Kaid Urban, infielders Wyatt Branch, Bryce Feist and Joe Raymond, and pitchers Kaivon Kealoha, Chandler Greenfield, Jayden Murray and Tyler Rosas.

ALL-TIME SERIES: Dixie State owns a 4-0 series lead against CCU, though the two teams have not met since the then-Rebels swept a four-game home series against the Cougars (2/16-17/07) during DSU's first season of NCAA competition in 2007.

LAST TIME OUT: The Trailblazers opened their final homestand of the 2019 season by taking three of four from Regis last weekend at Bruce Hurst Field. DSU posted victories in the first two games of the series, 8-3 in the series opener, followed by a 7-6 come-from-behind win in game two. Regis broke through with its lone win in game three with an 8-5 triumph in eight innings, before the Blazers went on to clinch the series win in the finale, 13-4.  

COACHING STAFF: Two-time Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year Chris Pfatenhauer is in his seventh season as head coach of the Dixie State Baseball program. Since his arrival in summer of 2012, Pfatenhauer has never had a losing season at Dixie State, and in the process, led the Trailblazers to consecutive PacWest titles in 2014 and 2015, and to five-straight trips to the NCAA West Regionals from 2013-17, including serving as the host institution in 2013.
    Pfatenhauer, who picked up his 200th victory as DSU skipper in the series opener at Concordia-Irvine (8-1; 4/26/18) last season, owns a 232-120-1 (.658) overall record at DSU, and a 284-179-1 (.614) career mark.
    Joining Pfatenhauer (UNLV, 2000) in the Trailblazer dugout this season is first-year pitching coach Joe Haumacher (Old Dominion, 2011), along with fifth-year assistant coaches Matt Hill (Dixie State 2015), and Bobby Rinard (Arizona, 2014), and first-year assistant coaches Trevor Amicone (Weber State, 2012) and former DSU infielder Tyler Mildenberg (Dixie State, 2018). 

DSU IN THE POLLS: Despite winning four of its last five games, Dixie State did not receive any votes in either the NCBWA Top-25 and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper national polls this week. The Trailblazers did move up one spot to No. 8 in this week's NCBWA South Central Regional rankings, and Dixie State debuted at No. 7 in the first official NCAA South Central Region poll released on Wednesday.

HI, MY NAME IS ....: After 11 years as a member of the Pacific West Conference, Dixie State embarked on its first season as full members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 2019.
    The Trailblazers won four PacWest baseball titles (2009, 2011, 2014, 2015) over their conference membership and posted a 227-112-1 overall record (.669) in 340 league games. Dixie State also made six-straight NCAA West Regional appearances (2012-17) during its run in the PacWest.

AND DOWN THE STRETCH WE COME: With two weeks to go in the RMAC regular season slate, Dixie State stands in a two-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings with Colorado-Colorado Springs at 18-10, four games back of the pace set by No. 1/No. 6-ranked Colorado Mesa at 22-6. No. 28/No. 25 Colorado School of Mines is two games back of CMU in second place at 20-8, followed by MSU Denver in third at 19-9.
    Five of the six RMAC tournament berths have already been clinched, while Colorado State-Pueblo is a virtual lock for the sixth spot as the ThunderWolves (15-13) own a seven-game lead on both New Mexico Highlands (8-20) and Regis (8-20) with eight games to play.
    The 2019 RMAC Tournament will be held May 8-11, at the home ballpark of the regular season champion. The winner of the RMAC Tournament will earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA South Central Regionals.

HOME SWEET HOME: With its series win vs. Regis last weekend, Dixie State clinched its 13-straight home winning record since becoming an NCAA Division II program in 2007. The Trailblazers have played to a 258-98 (.724) overall record inside the friendly confines of Bruce Hurst Field in the program's NCAA era, including a 17-7 mark this season. The 17 wins this season also matches the home win total from last season (17-9).
    Dixie State has won 20 or more games in seven of 12-plus seasons at home, including 21-5 (.807) record in 2017, and a 24-6 mark (.800) in 2016, which was the second-best home record in terms of wins in the program's NCAA Division II era (26-7 in 2009). The 24 home wins that year were the most under Head Coach Chris Pfatenhauer, while the .807 winning percentage in 2017 was the best W% during the Pfatenhauer era.
    In PacWest play, DSU was 126-44 (.741) all-time at Bruce Hurst Field and won 10 or more games in each of those 10 seasons, including 13 league wins last year and 14 victories in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Despite going 3-5 on its recent road swing, Dixie State has held its own away from home as the Trailblazers own a 145-127-1 overall road record (.533) through 12-plus years of D-II competition, which includes a 10-7 mark this season. DSU has posted a winning road record in seven of their last eight seasons overall, highlighted by a 16-7-1 road mark in 2017. The 16 road wins were the most in program history since its move to NCAA play in 2007.
    In 2015, DSU went a program-best 15-5 on the road (.750), and DSU has won at least 10 road games in eight of it last nine seasons overall. When you also figure in neutral-site games (10-10 in 20 games), Dixie State is 155-137-1 (.530) all-time away from Bruce Hurst Field in the program's NCAA era.
    In PacWest play, Dixie State was 99-65-1 (.603) in true road games and 0-1 in one neutral-site game vs. Hawai'i Hilo during the 2013 season, which was played in Riverside, Calif., (at California Baptist) as a make-up game due to a rain out on the Islands earlier that season.

JUST WIN BABY: If Dixie State win its final home series of the year vs. CCU this weekend, the Trailblazers will have reached the 30-win plateau for the 10th time in eleven seasons overall. DSU had won 30 or more game in nine-straight seasons, but the streak was halted last year when the Blazers posted a 25-25 mark.
    In fact, DSU won 35 of more games in four of those nine campaigns, including three of the last four years under Head Coach Chris Pfatenhauer, highlighted by 39 wins in 2017 and a four-year program record 40 victories (40-14) in 2016, The 2016 campaign also included a record-breaking 10-0 start to begin the season, which was the best overall start in the program's NCAA-era.

HERE'S TO THE NEXT 400: Dixie State picked up its 400th win in the program's NCAA era in the series opener vs. UCCS on March 16. DSU is 413-235-1 (.637) all-time through 12-plus years of NCAA Division II competition (649 games).

FREE BASEBALL: Dixie State played in its first extra-inning game of the year in game three vs. Regis last Friday, which resulted in an 8-5 DSU loss. The Trailblazers played in four extra inning games last season and posted a 3-1 record, though DSU had not had to go extra frames since knocking off Hawai'i Pacific 5-4 in 11 innings back on March 24, 2018, which ended a streak of 53-straight games without an extra-inning affair.
    Dating back to the 2016 season, the Trailblazers have won five of their last seven extra inning games overall, and are 31-15 (.674) in 46 total extra-inning games in the program's four-year era.

THE X(BH)-MEN: Dixie State pounded out 39 extra base hits (out of the 68 total base hits) in the series sweep at Adams State in its RMAC debut last month, which included school records for doubles (9), home runs (7), XHB (17), along with total hits (28), in the series finale. DSU wound up with 22 doubles and five triples, and posted an .866 SLG%, in the four game set.
    The Trailblazers followed that up with 16 XBH vs. UCCS (3/16-18), and 22 more XBH at NMHU, which included 15 doubles and six home runs. Dixie State also collected 11 XBH vs. Regis last weekend with six doubles, one triple and four home runs.

ENGEL NAMED TO MARCH D2BASEBALL TEAM: Junior 1B/OF Jake Engel was named to the D2Baseball Team of the Month for March. Engel was one of two RMAC players represented on the 11-player list (MSUD catcher Matt Malkin).
    The junior batted .407 in 18 games last month with eight home runs, 26 RBI, 27 runs scored and three stolen bases. Engel pounded out 12 XBH (.526 SLG%), including homering in three-straight games (G 3/4 at NMHU and G1 vs. CSUP) and drew 15 of his team-high 28 walks (.915 OB%) during that stretch, which culminated with him being named RMAC Player of the Week after the CSU-Pueblo series (3/29-31).  
    The junior opened the 2019 season on a tear, hitting safely in 33 of his first 42 games on his way to a .390 average. Engel has hit safely in 22 of 28 RMAC games, including a .429 average (6-for-14) at MSUD, and a .438 clip (7-for-16) at Mines (4/5-7) with his second-career four-hit game in G3. Engel is batting .396 against conference foes (38-for-96) overall with two triples, seven HRs and 29 RBI.
    Engel, who came into the 2019 season with two career HRs, has collected 22 XBH through 42 games (7 2B/3 3B/12 HR), and he is in the top-10 in the RMAC in average (9th), runs scored (T-4th), triples (T-6th), homers (4th), RBI (T-5th), SLG% (T-5th), walks (T-3rd) and OB% (2nd). Additionally, his 12 home runs this season ranks him t-third on DSU's single season list.

FISHER LANDS DSU'S FIRST CYCLE: Freshman 3B Tyson Fisher (.405/6 HR/32 RBI) became the first player in the program's NCAA era to hit for the cycle in the series finale at NMHU on March 24. Fisher pounded out a career-high five hits (5-for-5) in the game to go with career-highs of five RBI and four runs scored.
    Overall, Fisher hit a team-best .625 (10-for-16) in the NMHU series with six XBH, seven RBI and eight runs scored. In fact, he has legged out 20 XBH in 23 RMAC games (13 2B/3 3B/4 HR), including his sixth HR of the year in G3 vs. CSUP (3/30), and legged out four doubles in the Mines series (4/5-7).
    Fisher, who belted his seventh HR of the year (3R HR) in the finale vs. Regis last Saturday, leads the team in batting at .401 (No. 6 in RMAC), including a .425 (43-for-101) clip in league play, and is first on the club in XBH (24 - 14 2B/3 3B/7 HR) to go with 36 RBI.

IT'S UP THERE, IT'S OUT THERE, IT'S GONE!!: We are 42 games into the 2019 regular season and Dixie State has eclipsed last season's home run total (24 in 50 games) with 46 long balls (T-3rd all-time on single season list) to this point of the year, with 17 of those homers coming over the last 20 games and 35 total HRs through 28 RMAC games overall.
     Junior OF Lane Pritchard has homered in four of his last 12 starts, including a lead-off home run on the first pitch thrown in the MSUD series (4/12) and his first two-homer game in the opener vs. Regis last Thursday. Pritchard has also been part of two of DSU's three back-to-back HR instances this season, the last coming in G1 vs. Regis when he homered one pitch after senior OF Kaid Urban belted his first DSU round-tripper in the fourth inning.
    Pritchard's first HR of the year came on the front end of a back-to-back with Engel in the finale at NMHU (7th inning; 3/24), which marked the second time this season that DSU achieved that feat. In the series finale vs. UCCS (3/18), junior Cade Spurlin and Engel led off the sixth with consecutive HRs, which was the first time since the 2016 season that DSU had hit back-to-back homers in an inning (Jake Davison/Tyler Mildenberg vs. Hawai'i Pacific, 4/23/16).
    The Trailblazers hit 12 home runs at Adams State in their RMAC debut last month. Eight different Trailblazers hit at least one HR in that series, highlighted by a school record four-homer game from senior OF Brody Clifford in the series finale (3/10), which included two solo HRs, a three-run shot and a grand slam en route to a school record-tying nine RBI.
    The first of Clifford's record four home runs was a lead-off shot on the second pitch of the game, which marked first time since the 2016 season that a Trailblazer led off a game with a HR (Tanner Morache at Point Loma; 4/8/16).
    In addition, Jake Brown, Clifford and Braxton Ipson all homered in the fifth inning in that series finale, which marked just the third time in the program's NCAA era that DSU had three players homer in one inning. In 2007, Jesse Stone, Kyle Pratt and Jordan Daley all homered in the first inning in a win over Northwest Nazarene (3/20/07), while Jordan Hanley, Jimmy Dever and Alex Rosenhan achieved the feat in the ninth inning vs. Lewis-Clark State (5/2/09) two seasons later.  
    Of note, DSU's NCAA-era record for homers in a season is 68 set in 2009.

ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS: In all, the Trailblazers combined to break or tie a total of 16 single-game records in the finale at Adams State (3/10), including new team records for HR (7), RBI (27), at-bats (52) and total bases (60). In addition, DSU's 28 runs scored and its 19-run margin of victory tied the single game records for both set, coincidentally, in another 28-9 victory nearly 10 full seasons ago at home vs. Hawai'i Hilo (3/28/09). Meanwhile, the 37 combined runs scored were tied for second-most in the program's NCAA era.
    DSU also combined to score 68 total runs in the four-game set, which eclipsed the previous record of 52 set nearly 10 years ago to the weekend in a four-game sweep of Academy of Art (3/16-17/09). Clifford and Fisher led the Blazers with nine runs scored apiece, while seven DSU base runners collected at least five runs scored overall in the series.

TEAM NOTES
* - Pritchard (.372/6 HR/25 RBI) has been a run-scoring machine for the Trailblazers as he has crossed home plate 46 times over his last 34 games, including a team-high eight runs scored in DSU's last two home series vs. CSUP (3/29-31) and vs. Regis last weekend ... Pritchard's team-leading 55 runs scored currently ranks him second in the RMAC and leaves him needing just seven more runs scored to break DSU's single-season record of 61 set by Aaron Friend during the 2009 season ... Pritchard also swiped three bases against Regis last weekend, which vaulted him to t-fifth on DSU's single season list with 13 steals overall.
* - Junior C Cade Spurlin (.395/6 HR/36 RBI) tied his career-high with five RBI in DSU's G2 come-from-behind win over Regis last Friday, which included a game-winning three-run double in the sixth ... Spurlin batted .412 overall in the series and led the team with four doubles, one triple and seven RBI ... Spurlin also drove in five runs in the series opener at MSUD (4/12) as he went 3-for-4 with a homer in the come-from-behind win ... four of Spurlin's five RBI came after DSU fell behind 8-4 after five complete, including a three-run HR in the sixth inning and a game-tying single in the eighth.
* - Spurlin has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games and in 28 of his last 35 outings overall while batting .401 with 14 multi-hit games over that current stretch ... the junior is hitting at a .391 (34-for-87) clip in RMAC play this season (27 games) and has driven in 29 of his 36 RBI and hit four of his six HRs on the season against league opponents.
* - Sophomore 2B Tyler Hollow (.352/1 HR/42 RBI) took over the team RBI lead with 42 after he drove in a combined five runs and hit .364 (4-for-11) in four starts against Regis last week ... Hollow collected all five RBI in the final two games of the series, highlighted by a 2-for-3 day with a double, three RBI and two runs scored in the finale ... Hollow has posted two-hit games in six of his last nine starts overall, including all three outings in the MSUD series.
* - Junior closer Brayden Bonner (2-1/3.20 ERA/30 K), who will make his third start of the year in Sunday's finale vs. CCU, continues to lead the RMAC with eight saves, with his last save coming in the series opener at MSUD back on April 12 ... Bonner's eight saves ranks him t-eighth on DSU's NCAA-era single season and career saves lists.
* - Senior RHP Jayden Murray (8-2/3.80 ERA/72 K) won for the eighth time in 11 starts in G2 vs. Regis, against which he posted his second complete game victory of the year as he scattered seven hits and five earned runs (six total) with eight Ks in 7.0 IP.
* - Murray has struck out seven or more batters in five of his last seven starts, including eight Ks vs. CSUP (3/29), and eight strikeouts in a complete-game five-hitter in the series-opener vs. UCCS (3/16).
* - Murray fanned a career-high 10 and surrendered two earned runs (four total) and seven hits in 5.0 IP to earn the decision in G2 at Adams State (3/9) ... Murray's 10 strikeouts were the most by a DSU pitcher since former DSU hurler and current Milwaukee Brewer farmhand Dylan File struck out 11 in a complete-game three-hit shutout win over MSUB (2/24/17) during the 2017 season.
* - Murray enters his final home start Friday vs. CCU needing just six strikeouts to break DSU's single-season record (77, Justin Prodan/2010), while he is fifth in career strikeouts (118) ... additionally, Murray is currently DSU's single season (10.1) and career leader (8.25) in K/9IP.  
* - Junior RHP Preston Hannay (5-3/6.02 ERA/35 K) picked up his fifth win of the year after he fired 6.0 innings of one-hit shutout baseball with four strikeouts in DSU's 13-4 series-clinching win over Regis last Saturday ... the junior faced two batters over the minimum through his first five innings of work, surrendering just a two-out single in the third inning, while the junior did not issue a walk and three hit batters on the day.
* - Hannay has allowed just four hits and one run over his last two starts (13.0 IP) with 12 strikeouts overall, which includes a career-high eight Ks while surrendering just one run and three hits over 7.0 IP in the finale at MSUD (4/14).
* - Junior LHP Tevita Gerber (2-0/6.53 ERA/30 K) collected his second win of the season after he tossed 5.0 innings of one-hit shutout relief with a DSU career-high six strikeouts in the opener vs. Regis last Thursday.
* - DSU enters the week as the RMAC leader in batting (.333), runs (367) and OB% (.439), and is second in hits (457) and RBI (319) ... in fact, the Blazers are ranked in the league's top-four in virtually every major offensive statistical category.
* - DSU is also second in the RMAC in stolen bases (69-for-84), including an impressive 49-for-58 in 28 RMAC games (13-of-13 at ASU, 11-of-12 vs. Regis).
* - Meanwhile the Trailblazer pitching staff owns a 5.37 team ERA heading into this weekend's series vs. CCU ... DSU pitchers have held opposing hitters to a .274 average through 42 games this season overall and have combined for 316 strikeouts in 340.0 IP.

NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Dixie State closes the 2019 regular season with a four-game showdown at current No. 1/No. 6 Colorado Mesa next weekend, May 2-4, in Grand Junction.