Dixie State saw a pair of late inning leads slip away as the Trailblazers dropped the first game of their four-game series at Tarleton State by a 10-9 count in 10 innings on Thursday afternoon at the TSU Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex.

The Trailblazers (6-16/4-9 WAC) drew first blood in their first at-bats when Kaden Hollow slapped an opposite field single through the left side of the infield to chase home Shane Taylor, who reached on a lead-off walk.

That lead would not last as the Texans (9-17/2-7 WAC) struck for five runs in the home second to race out to a 5-1 advantage. Tarleton collected only two hits in the rally, but five walks issued by Blazer pitching, including two with the bases loaded, allowed the Texans to send 11 batters to plate in their big inning.

Tarleton would tack on another run in the fourth to extend to a 6-1 cushion, but the Trailblazers would quickly erase that lead an inning later with a five-spot of their own to knot the game at 6-6.

Drake Benner was plunked to lead off the frame and would advance to second on a Tyson Fisher single. Following a Mathew Ivancich single that loaded the bases with one out, the Texan defense committed consecutive errors on possible double play balls that allowed DSU to score three runs.

Then with runners at the corners and still one out, Ben Petty-Hull broke early for second and was caught in a rundown, which allowed Shane Taylor to swipe home to pull Dixie State to within a run. Hollow capped the rally three pitches later with a bounding ball back up the middle to bring Petty-Hull around carrying the tying run.

The score remained tied until the DSU seventh when Hollow collected his third RBI of the day when he laced a two-out double to the gap in right center to again plate Taylor and give the Blazers a 7-6 lead.

While the offense was doing its thing to rally at the plate, four Blazer relievers combined to limit Tarleton to just one hit over the next four-plus innings. However TSU would solve the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth as the Texans strung together three singles, including a game-tying hit from Tyler Fowler, to tie the game at 7-7 and send it to extra innings.

In the DSU 10^th, Hollow was placed at second base with the international tie-break rule and he would advance to third on a Jake Engel flyout. That brought up Pritchard, who blasted an 0-1 A.J. Wood offering over the wall in straight-away center field to stake the Blazers to a 9-7 advantage.

Unfortunately for Dixie State, the Texans would answer with three runs of their own in their last swings, which was aided by an error, ending with a Fowler two-out single through the right side of the infield to end the game.

Dixie State finished with 11 hits on the day, highlighted by a three-hit day for Hollow to go with his three RBI, while Pritchard finished with two safeties. The DSU bullpen racked up 12 strikeouts from the second inning on, including five punchouts in two spotless innings from Jack Gonzales (ND) in the sixth and seventh frames.

The two teams will play the middle pair of their four-game weekend series on Friday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. (CT).