Dixie State saw its hopes of winning an RMAC tournament championship in its debut season come to an abrupt halt on Friday as the Trailblazers came up on the short end of two games at Suplizio Field.

DSU (35-19) dropped a hard-fought 3-1 decision to top-seed No. 1/No. 4 Colorado Mesa in the winner's bracket finale earlier in the day, before a late rally came up just short in an 8-7 loss to No. 2 seed Colorado School of Mines by an 8-7 count in the final game of the day.

Against CMU, the Trailblazers were locked in a pitcher's duel with the Mavericks over the first six-plus innings of play as sophomore lefthander Jack Gonzales limited the potent Maverick offense to just one first-inning run and five total hits. However his counterpart, CMU starter Trevin Reynolds (W, 4-1), stymied the Dixie State bats as he surrendered only two hits over his first seven innings of work.

Colorado Mesa (44-9) would solve Gonzales in the home seventh as the Mavericks opened the stanza with three-straight hits and pushed two insurance runs across to extend to a 3-0 advantage.

Dixie State finally broke through in the top of the eighth when pinch-hitter Wyatt Branch walked and Jake Engel singled ahead of Cade Spurlin, who put the Trailblazers on the board with a two-out RBI-hit to chase Reynolds and bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate.

However Maverick closer Will Dixon (S, 12) came on to record the final out of the eighth and pitched a spotless ninth to end the game.

Dixie State tallied four hits in the loss, with Spurlin accounting for two of those safeties and the lone RBI. Gonzales (L, 6-3) lasted seven innings complete and scattered three runs and nine hits with five strikeouts.

In the second game vs. Mines, the Trailblazers scored runs in each of the first two innings to jump out to quick 2-0 lead. Spurlin drove in the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly in the opening stanza, while Wyatt Branch stole home on the back end of a double steal with two outs in the second.

The Orediggers (39-12) would erase the Blazer lead in the third as Trevor Kehe and Derek Daly each belted two-out, two-run home runs to power Mines to a 4-2 advantage. CSM struck for two more runs in the fifth thanks to a Mikey Gangwish two-run shot over the right centerfield wall, which was the first of homers the Mines catcher would hit as he also connected for a two-run blast in the seventh to extend the Oredigger lead to 8-2.

Meanwhile, CSM starter Tyler Blomster shut the Dixie State bats down from the second inning on as he fanned nine and surrendered just one hit over his next four innings of work. Blomster struck out the side in the fifth and collected his 13^th and final strikeout of the night with two outs in the sixth after Dixie State loaded the bases to bring up the potential tying run.

Dixie State would finally get the bats going against Oredigger bullpen in the eighth as the Trailblazers strung together three-straight one-out singles, including a Spurlin RBI-safety, ahead of Engel (14), who drilled a 1-0 Colin Morris offering over the wall in left center to cut DSU's deficit to 8-6.

Tyson Fisher then followed with a pinch-hit triple and would scamper home on a dropped fly ball in the Oredigger outfield to pull DSU to within a run at 8-7. However the Blazer rally would stall there as Mines reliever Gabe Garvens retired the next two hitters he faced to end the threat. Garvens (S, 5) then set down the Trailblazers in order in the ninth to close out the game.

DSU lost despite outhitting Mines by a 10-8 count, highlighted by a 3-for-5 night for Engel, while Spurlin finished with two RBI. 

Dixie State, which is currently sixth in the latest NCAA Division II South Central Region rankings, will now wait and see if the 35 wins on its 2019 resume will be good enough to earn a berth into the 2019 NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament when the official field is announced this Sunday, May 12.