Dixie State could not overcome four errors on Saturday as the Trailblazers dropped the final game of their 2020 home-opening series to former Pacific West Conference rival Azusa Pacific, 11-8, at Bruce Hurst Field. DSU saw its record fall to 9-2 on the young season after splitting the four-game set against the Cougars (5-7).

The Trailblazers looked to be well on their way to a series victory in the early going as DSU led 5-0 through the first three innings. After plating an unearned run the first, Dixie State struck for four runs in the second to take early command of the contest.

Jake Brown reached on a one-out walk to begin the rally and was chased home by a Braden Stutzman triple to right field. Following an Alec Flemetakis base hit that drove in Stutzman, Lane Pritchard rapped an opposite-field single on a hit-and-run play that moved Flemetakis to third.

On the play, the throw into the third base bag caromed away for the Cougar defender, which allowed Flemetakis to score and Pritchard to advance to third. Jake Engel then picked up an RBI on a groundout to second to bring in Pritchard with DSU's fifth run of the day.

DSU's lead would be short-lived as the Cougars erupted for nine runs over their next three offensive frames to vault to a 9-7 advantage. APU got on the board in the fourth with a two-run Nick Estrella homer, before tying the game at 5-5 in the fifth with three more runs. Two of those three Cougar runs came on a towering blast off the bat of Tido Robles, while Will Stroud reached on a bases-loaded, two-out infield single. 

Dixie State got up off the deck in the home fifth to reclaim the lead at 7-5 thanks to a balk and a Tyler Hollow RBI-double. However the Blazers would surrender the lead for good one inning later as Azusa Pacific cashed in two DSU lead-off errors for four unearned runs in the stanza to take a 9-7 advantage.

DSU countered with a run in the sixth to pull to within a run, but APU scored single runs in the seventh and eighth frames. Meanwhile, the Blazer offense mustered only one base runner from the seventh inning on against the Cougar bullpen as DSU lost its second-straight to close the series.

Pritchard and Stutzman each legged out triples and finished with three hits apiece to lead the Dixie State, which finished with 10 safeties on the day. Senior lefthander Tevita Gerber (ND), who sailed through the first three innings, struck out six for the third time in as many starts this season, though was touched up for seven hits and five runs (four earned) over five innings.

Dixie State continues the homestand next weekend with a three-game set vs. Concordia-Portland on Feb. 22-23.