Game Times (Mountain):
(G1) Thursday - 6 p.m.
(G2) Friday - 6 p.m.
(G3) Saturday - 12 noon
(G4) Sunday - 3 p.m.
Game Notes: DIXIE STATE - PDF | CMU
Audio/Video: at CMU
Live Stats: at CMU
Twitter: @DixieAthletics | @Dixie_Baseball | #DixieBlazers | #RMACbase | #D2Baseball
 
PROBABLE STARTERS:
Thursday (G1) – RHP Preston Hannay (5-3, 6.51 ERA) vs. RHP Andrew Morris (3-1, 3.20 ERA)
Friday (G2) – RHP Jayden Murray (9-2, 3.66 ERA) vs. RHP Garrett Hutson (8-1, 2.66 ERA)
Saturday (G3) – LHP Jack Gonzales (5-2, 5.73 ERA) vs. RHP Nathan Wilson (2-0, 5.29 ERA)
Saturday (G4) – TBA vs. TBA

FIRST PITCH: Dixie State (32-14/22-10 RMAC) closes the 2019 regular season schedule this weekend in Grand Junction with a four-game showdown at RMAC-leading No. 1/No. 5 Colorado Mesa (38-8/26-6 RMAC). The first two games of the series will be played on Thursday and Friday nights beginning at 6 p.m., while Saturday's doubleheader finale will take place at 12 noon.

ALL-TIME SERIES: Dixie State is 14-27 all-time vs. its now Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rivals in Colorado Mesa, though this will be the first official RMAC series between the two programs. CMU has won six-straight and nine of the last 10 meetings overall, including a sweep of a pair of non-conference games played at Bruce Hurst Field this past March 3 (3-11, 3-6).  
    Last season, CMU posted a four-game sweep of DSU in Grand Junction, which came on the heels of the Mavericks taking three of four from the Trailblazers at Bruce Hurst Field in 2017. In fact, CMU has won 22 of the last 28 meetings between the two teams, this after DSU won eight of the first 13 games to begin the series.

LAST TIME OUT: The Trailblazers wrapped up their 2019 home slate with a four-game sweep of Colorado Christian last weekend at Bruce Hurst Field. On a night when senior RHP Jayden Murray broke DSU's single-season strikeout record, Dixie State scored eight first-inning runs on it way to a 12-4 win in the series opener last Friday. DSU then rallied to take both ends of a Saturday twin bill, 7-6 and 8-4, before closing out its third RMAC series sweep of the year with an 8-2 victory in Sunday's finale.

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 236-120-1 (.662) overall record at DSU, and a 288-179-1 (.616) 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 five-straight and eight of its last nine games overall, 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 two spots to No. 6 in this week's NCBWA South Central Regional rankings, and Dixie State climebed one spot to No. 6 in the second official NCAA South Central Region poll released on Wednesday.

AND DOWN THE STRETCH WE COME: Heading into the final weekend of the 2019 regular season, Dixie State stands alone in third place in the RMAC standings at 22-10, one game back of No. 28 Colorado School of Mines (23-9) and four games behind of conference-leading CMU (26-6). DSU does own a three-game lead over both MSU Denver (19-13) and Colorado-Colorado Springs (19-13), both of which are tied for fourth, and Colorado State-Pueblo (18-14) clinched the sixth and final RMAC tournament berth over the weekend.  
    All six teams which have qualified for the RMAC tourney will coincidentally play fellow qualifiers to close out the season this weekend. Along with the DSU/CMU series, Mines will host MSU Denver for four games and UCCS will play a four-game set at CSU-Pueblo, meaning the final tournament seedings will not be set until the final outs are recorded on Saturday.
    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: Dixie State closed its 2019 home slate by winning seven of its final eight games to clinch its 13-straight home winning record since becoming an NCAA Division II program in 2007. The Trailblazers have played to a 262-98 (.728) overall record in 360 games played inside the friendly confines of Bruce Hurst Field in the program's NCAA era, including a 21-7 mark (.750) this season.
    Dixie State has won 20 or more games in eight of 13 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. The Trailblazers continued that trend in their RMAC debut as they played to a 13-3 home record (.812) in league games.

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.  Heading into this weekend's series at CMU, Dixie State is 9-7 (.562) in road RMAC games.

JUST WIN BABY: Dixie State's home sweep of CCU also clinched the program's 10th 30-plus win season in its NCAA era. The Trailblazers have reached the 30-win plateau ten times in the last eleven seasons overall, and had won 30 or more game in nine-straight seasons (2009-17), 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 previous 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 417-235-1 (.639) all-time through 12-plus years of NCAA Division II competition (653 games).

FREE BASEBALL: Dixie State played in its first extra-inning game of the year in game three vs. Regis on April 19, 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 back on March 8-10, 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 18 XBH vs. CCU last weekend with 11 doubles, two triples and five home runs.

ENGEL NAMED TO MARCH D2BASEBALL TEAM: Junior 1B/OF Jake Engel (.382, 12 HR/42 RBI) 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 has hit safely in 35 of 45 games this season on his way to a .382 average, including hitting safely in 24 of 31 RMAC games. Engel is also batting .383 against in RMAC play (41-for-107) with two triples, seven HRs and 30 RBI.
    Engel, who came into the 2019 season with two career HRs, has collected 22 XBH through 46 games (7 2B/3 3B/12 HR), and he is in the top-10 in the RMAC in runs scored (5th), triples (T-6th), homers (T-5th), RBI (6th), SLG% (7th), walks (4th) and OB% (8th), and is 11th in average. 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 (.386/8 HR/37 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 eighth HR of the year (solo HR) in G3 vs. CCU last Saturday, is batting .386 in 41 games (No. 9 in RMAC), including a .401 (45-for-112) clip in league play, and is first on the club in XBH (25 - 14 2B/3 3B/8 HR) to go with 37 RBI.

IT'S UP THERE, IT'S OUT THERE, IT'S GONE!!: We are 46 games into the 2019 regular season and Dixie State has more than doubled last season's home run total (24 in 50 games) with 51 long balls (#2 all-time on single season list) to this point of the year, with 22 of those homers coming over the last 24 games. DSU has also hit 40 total HRs through 32 RMAC games overall, including five homers last weekend vs. CCU.
     Junior OF Lane Pritchard has homered in five of his last 16 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 (4/18).
    Pritchard, who also homered in the series opener vs. CCU last Friday, has been part of two of DSU's three back-to-back HR instances this season, the last coming in G1 vs. Regis (4/18) 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 in March. 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.

speaKKKKKKing OF RECORDS: Senior RHP Jayden Murray (9-2/3.66 ERA/78 K) became Dixie State's single-season strikeout king in last Friday night's opener vs. CCU after he fanned six Cougars over 7.1 innings, including his record-breaking 78th punch out of the final batter he faced to open the eighth inning of DSU's 12-4 win.
    Murray picked up his RMAC-leading ninth win of the year in the process as he scattered six hits and two runs. He faced just two batters over the minimum and surrendered just three hits through his first six scoreless innings of work, thanks in part to a pair of double plays turned in by the Blazer defense in the third and fifth frames.
    The senior has struck out seven or more batters in five of his last eight starts, highlighted by a career-high 10 Ks in 5.0 IP in his RMAC debut in G2 at Adams State (3/9). The 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 regular season start in game two Friday at CMU fifth in program history in career strikeouts (124), and he is currently DSU's single season (9.84) and career leader (8.14) in K/9IP.  

TEAM NOTES
* - Pritchard (.371/7 HR/28 RBI) has been a run-scoring machine for the Trailblazers as he has crossed home plate 51 times over his last 38 games, including a team-high eight runs scored in DSU's last two home series vs. CSUP (3/29-31) and vs. Regis (4/18-20) ... Pritchard's team-leading 60 runs scored currently ranks him second in the RMAC and leaves him needing just two more runs scored to break DSU's single-season record of 61 set by Aaron Friend during the 2009 season ... Pritchard also swiped two bases against CCU last weekend, which vaulted him to t-third on DSU's single season list with 15 steals overall.
* - Junior C Cade Spurlin (.393/6 HR/37 RBI) tied his career-high with five RBI in DSU's G2 come-from-behind win over Regis (4/19), which included a game-winning three-run double in the sixth ... 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, who leads the team in batting at .393, has hit safely in 15 of his last 17 games and in 31 of his last 39 outings overall while batting an even .400 with 14 multi-hit games over that current stretch ... the junior is hitting at a .389 (37-for-95) clip in RMAC play this season (31 games) and has driven in 30 of his 37 RBI and hit four of his six HRs on the season against league opponents.
* - Sophomore 2B Tyler Hollow (.350/2 HR/44 RBI) continues to lead the team in RBI lead with 44, including driving in a pair of runs over four starts in the CCU series, highlighted by his second HR of the season, a seventh-inning solo shot in the series opener ... Hollow also drove in a combined five runs and hit .364 (4-for-11) in four starts against Regis two weeks ago ... the sophomore has posted two-hit games in seven of his last 13 starts overall, including all three outings in the MSUD series, and he had three total hits in the CCU series opener.
* - Senior INF Wyatt Branch (.389/10 RBI) made the most of his "Senior Weekend" as he batted a team-best .556 (5-for-9), with team series-highs of three doubles and six RBI, to go with four runs scored and a stolen base ... Branch hit safely and collected at least one RBI in each of his three starts, beginning with a 2-for-3 night with a pair of doubles, two RBI and three runs scored in Friday's opener ... he then came back on Senior Day with a 2-for-4 effort with another double and a career-high three RBI.
* - Fellow seniors Kaid Urban (.297/1 HR/24 RBI), Joe Raymond (.243/6 RBI) and Kade Cloward (.314/4 RBI) also enjoyed a memorable "Senior Weekend" last week ... Urban batted .500 in the series and collected at least on hit in all three starts, highlighted by a 3-for-3 effort in the opener, and by his game-tying two-run double in the seventh-inning of game two ... Raymond legged out a double and drove in two runs in G3 vs. CCU, while "Clutch" Kade doubled home the eventual game-winning run later in the G3 win.
* - Junior OF Jake Brown (.290/3 HR/15 RBI) picked up a pair of base hits in the CCU series, both of which went for extra bases and drove in runs, including a solo HR in G2 and an RBI-triple in the finale ... speaking of triples, freshman INF Zach Thomas (.333) legged out a triple for his first collegiate hit in the CCU finale and would later single to finish 2-for-2 on the day.
* - Junior 1B Braxton Ipson (.297/4 HR/28 RBI) capped Dixie State's three-run seventh-inning in G2 vs. CCU with a walk-off single through the right side to complete the 7-6 come-from-behind win ... Ipson would strike again in the CCU series finale with a mammoth three-run HR to center field as part of a five-run fourth inning.
* - Junior closer Brayden Bonner (3-1/3.00 ERA/33 K) picked up his third win of the year in Sunday's finale vs. CCU, against which he struck out three and limited the Cougars to one run and six hits in 4.2 IP ... Bonner 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.
* - Junior LHP Tevita Gerber (3-0/6.06 ERA/30 K) collected his second win in as many weekends and the third of the season after he fired 2.1 innings of scoreless relief in G2 vs. CCU last Saturday ... Gerber also tossed 5.0 innings of one-hit shutout relief with a DSU career-high six strikeouts to earn the decision in the opener vs. Regis (4/18).
* - Senior RHP Tyler Rosas (2-3, 4.87 ERA/15 K) accounted for the DSU bullpen's second win in Saturday's sweep after he held CCU to one run and three hits over 3.1 of work with a strikeout.
* - DSU enters the week as the RMAC leader in batting (.334), runs (402) and OB% (.441), and is second in hits (496) and RBI (349) ... 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 (77-for-93), including an impressive 57-for-67 in 32 RMAC games (13-of-13 at ASU, 11-of-12 vs. Regis).
* - Meanwhile the Trailblazer pitching staff owns a 5.23 team ERA (#3 in RMAC) heading into this weekend's series at CMU ... DSU pitchers have held opposing hitters to a .273 average through 46 games this season overall and have combined for 332 strikeouts (#4 in RMAC) in 372.0 IP.

NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Dixie State has already clinched a berth to the 2019 RMAC Baseball Championship Tournament, which will be held next week, May 8-11, at the home ballpark of the regular season champion. The official tournament location, bracket, pairings, and game times will be announced later this weekend.