Dixie State pounded out three home runs and 15 hits to salvage the final game of its three-game WAC and "Old Hammer Rivalry" series at in-state rival Utah Valley, 8-5, on Saturday afternoon at UCCU Ballpark. With the win, the Trailblazers snapped their season long six-game losing streak and improved to 15-20, 9-9 in WAC play. 
 
Both teams punched and counter-punched through the first six innings, with the Trailblazers striking for a first-inning run on a Kaden Hollow two-out RBI single.
 
UVU (14-22/7-11 WAC) answered with two runs in the home half of the first and held on to its 2-1 lead until the fourth, when Tyler Hollow homered down the right field line to tie the score at 2-2. The older Hollow won a seven-pitch battle with his first home run in nearly three full seasons (vs. UCCS @ 2019 RMAC Tourn., 5/8/19). 
 
The Wolverines would retake the lead in the fourth on a wild pitch and threatened for more with runners at the corners with one out, but DSU starter Ryan Hardman (ND) got Copper Hansen to line into a double play to end the threat.
 
DSU used the long ball again in the fifth to pull even, this time it was Jagun Leavitt who touched them all with his second of the season – and career – that knotted the score at 3-3. 

Later in the fifth, Zach Thomas and Shane Taylor followed with consecutive one-out singles. Thomas would advance to third on the Taylor hit and gave the Blazers their first lead of the game at 4-3 when he scored on the back of a stolen base attempt that turned into a strikeout/throw out double play.
 
Utah Valley quickly tied the game at 4-4 when Kyle Coburn ambushed the first pitch he saw from Hardman for a lead-off homer. UVU right fielder Mitch Moralez then followed with a base hit, which spelled the end of the day for Hardman. 

DSU reliever Justin Woodbury came on and snuffed out any possible Wolverine rally with two strikeouts that book-ended Kaden Hollow throwing out Moralez trying to steal second.
 
The Blazers took the lead for good in the sixth when Mathew Ivancich singled home pinch runner Keith Davis with two outs. Dixie State would tack on an insurance run in the eighth with a Parker Schmidt pinch-hit RBI single, and would put the game away in the ninth on a towering Kaden Hollow opposite field two-run blast.
 
Meanwhile, the Trailblazer bullpen made the lead stand as four relievers limited UVU to one run and two hits over the final five innings. Woodbury (W, 1-1) set the tone, tossing two spotless innings with three strikeouts to earn his first collegiate decision. 
 
Kaden Hollow finished the day 3-for-5 with three RBI, while his ninth inning homer was his team-leading fifth of the year. In addition, the Hollow brothers became the first brother tandem in Dixie State's NCAA era to homer in the same game. 
 
Taylor also collected three hits, while Leavitt and Thomas rapped out two hits apiece, as the top-five in the DSU order went a combined 11-for-23 in the game.
 
Dixie State returns home for a big three-game WAC series vs. Sacramento State next weekend, April 22-24, at Bruce Hurst Field.