Braxton Ipson singled home the game-winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift Dixie State to a dramatic 2-1 victory over Colorado-Colorado Springs in the opening game of the 2019 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament Wednesday afternoon at Suplizio Field.

The No. 3-seeded Trailblazers (34-17) will now advance on to face the winner of tonight's No. 2 seed Colorado School of Mines/No. 5 seed MSU Denver game on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Tyler Hollow (4) quickly got the Trailblazers on the board with a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first inning. However that would be the only run the Blazers would get off of UCCS starter Daniel Silva (ND), who held DSU to just four total hits and fanned six over his eight innings complete.

Not to be outdone, junior righthander Preston Hannay (ND) matched Silva frame by frame as he limited UCCS (28-23) to just one run, which came in the Mountain Lion second stanza, and six hits (all singles) and needed only 88 pitches to get through his first eight innings of work. Hannay pitched into the ninth and finished with seven strikeouts, one off of his career high.

With one out in the Dixie State ninth, Kaid Urban and pinch-hitter Joe Raymond were both plunked on consecutive full counts. Bryce Feist then flew out to right field, which allowed pinch-runner Lane Pritchard to advance to third with two outs. Following a Raymond steal of second base on the first pitch of his final at-bat, Ipson laced a 1-0 Dagin Renck (L, 2-1) offering down the left field line for an opposite-field single to drive in Pritchard to end the game.

Dixie State finished with five hits in the game as Jake Engel, Cade Spurlin and Feist all reached with safeties, while Pritchard's run scored (61) pulled him into a tie for first place on DSU's single-season runs list (61 - Aaron Friend, 2009). Junior reliever Brayden Bonner (W, 4-1) retired the only batter he faced in the ninth to collect his fourth win of the season.