Tanner Argyle homered and drove in two runs, while four Trailblazer pitchers combined on a four-hitter, as Dixie State opened a crucial WAC home series with a 3-1 victory over conference leading California Baptist on Friday night at Bruce Hurst Field.

The two former Pacific West Conference rivals battled to a scoreless draw through the first half of the game, with freshman righthander Dillon Holliday (W, 3-1) limiting the Lancer offense to just three hits over his first five innings of work. Meanwhile, CBU southpaw Chris Burica (L, 5-3) was just as effective in allowing only two hits and four total baserunners through four innings.

Dixie State (10-20/8-9 WAC) would solve Burica in the home fifth, which started with a bang when Argyle drove the first pitch of the frame over the wall in left center to put the Blazers on top 1-0. For Argyle it was his first home run as a Trailblazer. DSU would tack on one more run in the stanza with a two-out Tanner Harper RBI single that plated Jagun Leavitt, who reached on a one-out double.

CBU (19-10/11-1 WAC) broke through with a homer of its own in the sixth with a one-out Ulises Caballero solo shot to center field that cut the DSU lead in half at 2-1.

Holliday would retire the next batter he faced before giving way to the Trailblazer bullpen. Haiden Hendricks fanned two and worked around a pair of walks in his outing, while Jack Gonzales fired 1.2 innings of perfect relief with four strikeouts. DSU closer Brayden Bonner (S, 4) then came on and pitched a spotless ninth to close out the win. 

Dixie State finished with nine hits on the night, with Lane Pritchard going a perfect 3-for-3 at the dish with a stolen base. Argyle finished with two hits, including an RBI-single with two outs in the sixth to extend the DSU lead back to two runs. Holliday struck out a career-high five in 5.2 innings to earn his third win of the season.

The two teams will play the middle pair of their four-game weekend series on Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:05 p.m.