No. 16 Dixie State stopped a two-game slide with a 9-4 victory over Concordia-Portland in the first game of a three-game weekend series Friday night at Bruce Hurst Field.

Pitching was the order of the night in the early going as Concordia starter Sasha Jabusch struck out nine of the first 14 Trailblazers he faced and held DSU hitless through four innings. Meanwhile, junior righthander Justin Dunham managed to match his counterpart in the early going, retiring eight-straight and nine of the first 10 Cavaliers to begin his night.

Trailing 1-0 in the home fifth, Dixie State loaded the bases with no outs on a Tyson Fisher lead-off walk, followed by a CU-P fielding error on a Lane Pritchard sacrifice bunt and a Tanner Harper bunt single, DSU's first hit of the night.

The Blazers were then gifted a run on a one-out passed ball ahead of a perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunt by Braden Stutzman. Pritchard scored easily from third, while Harper, who broke just as the Jabusch came to the plate, sprinted all the way around from second base and eluded the tag at the plate to give DSU a 3-1 lead.

Concordia-Portland got two of those runs back in the sixth when a one-out error ultimately led to a two-out, two-run Todd Reese double to knot the score at 3-3.

From there it was all Trailblazers as Dixie State broke the game open with four runs in the home sixth and single runs over the next two innings to put the game on ice. Fisher doubled home the first run in the sixth to break the tie, then after DSU loaded the bases, Braxton Ipson unloaded them with a pinch-hit, three-run double to extend the Blazer cushion to four runs.

DSU's bullpen took over from there as the duo of freshman southpaw Benton Hart (W, 2-0) and senior RHP Preston Hannay each struck out three and combined to limit the Cavaliers to just two hits and one unearned run over the final 3.1 innings to close out the win.

Dixie State rapped out six hits on the night, including four doubles, while Stutzman and Ipson drove in three runs apiece. Dunham scattered one earned run (three total) and four hits with four strikeouts over 5.2 innings, but did not figure into the decision. 

Jabusch (L, 0-3) pitched into the fifth inning and wound up striking out 10 Blazers on the night, though he was touched up for six runs (three earned) on three hits and four walks.

The two teams will wrap up the series with a doubleheader on Sunday at Bruce Hurst Field beginning at 12 noon.