Despite a combined six Trailblazer home runs, Dixie State saw San Diego State rally to walk off with a pair of victories, 8-7 and 5-4 in 10 innings, on Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

Jake Engel wasted little time get the Trailblazers on the scoreboard as he sent the sixth pitch of game over the wall in straight away center field for a one-out solo home run. The Aztecs drew even with an unearned run in the their first at-bat, but Engel would strike again with his second homer of the game to lead off the fourth to give his side the lead right back at 2-1.

Dixie State (11-25) used the long ball to extend to a two-run cushion in the fifth when Cade Spurlin drove a 1-2 Troy Melton (ND) offering into the Blazer bullpen to lead off the frame. The early Trailblazer power surge bolstered a strong start by freshman hurler Dillon Holliday (ND), who limited the nation's second-leading hitting and scoring offense to just the one unearned run and two hits over his first four innings of work.

However San Diego State would solve Holliday in the fifth as the Aztecs struck for five runs to erase the deficit and take a 6-3 lead. SDSU pounded out three hits in the rally, which was aided by two costly Trailblazer errors.

DSU got four of those runs back in the sixth, the first of which came off the bat of Engel, who connected for his third homer of the game with one out in the frame. The Blazers then load the bases with two outs and would push across three more runs to wrestle the lead back at 7-6.

Chase Rodriguez picked up an RBI on a pinch-hit walk, which was the third-straight free pass the Aztecs surrendered in the stanza, while Jagun Leavitt was plunked to bring home the tying run. The Blazers were then gifted their go-ahead run on an Aztec throwing error.

SDSU (21-9) pulled even with a Mike Jarvis long ball in the home sixth, and the game would remain deadlocked until the bottom of the ninth, when after DSU's fourth error, the Aztecs would walk off with the win on a Brian Leonhardt run-scoring fly out.

Engel, who also drew a pair of walks, became the second player in Dixie State's NCAA era to homer in three-straight plate appearances (Brody Clifford at Adams State – 3/10/19).

DSU finished with six hits overall, with Lane Pritchard accounting for a pair of singles, to go with the four homers. Holliday pitched five complete innings, surrendering six runs, though only two were earned, on five hits with one strikeout, but he did not figure into the decision.

In the nightcap, the Trailblazers would again jump out to an early lead, plating two runs in the second and another in the third. DSU scored the first run of the game without benefit of a hit as Tyson Fisher reached on a throwing error, took second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a fly out to center, and scored on another wild pitch on ball four to Drake Benner.

Benner would go on to steal second and came around to score on a Mathew Ivancich RBI-single through the left side of the infield. Then in the third, Fisher scored his second run of the game with his fourth homer of the season, a solo shot to left center with two outs in the frame.

Engel would get into the act to lead off the fifth with his fourth solo blast of the day, to extend the Blazer lead to 4-0.

While the offense was doing its thing, junior righthander Jimmy Borzone was dealing, striking out four while limiting the high-powered Aztec offense to just two hits and one unearned run over his first six innings. SDSU got its run in the home fifth after an errant throw on a stolen base attempt put the Aztecs on the scoreboard.

SDSU kept the rally going in the home seventh as the first two Aztecs reached on walks to begin the frame, which ended the day for Borzone. Caden Miller followed with a bases-clearing triple, and he would later scamper home carrying the tying run on a Pancho Ruiz sacrifice fly.

In the 10^th inning with the tie-break rule in play, Dixie State could not advance and score the placed runner at second base. However the Aztecs did in the home half as SDSU bunted Miller to third and brought him home on a one-out Wyatt Hendrie single to end the game.

DSU lost despite outhitting the Aztecs 6-5, with six different Blazers accounting for the all six safeties. Meanwhile Engel's (29 career HRs) career day moved him to within three homers of becoming DSU's career home run leader (Drew Oldfield - 31, 2009-10).

The two teams will close out their three-game series on Sunday at 12 noon (PT).