Dixie State pounded out season highs of 22 hits and five home runs, and the Trailblazers needed every single one of them, as they evened their weekend series at New Mexico State in a slugfest, 18-15, on Saturday afternoon at Presley Askew Field.
 
The host Aggies (17-23/7-13 WAC) jumped out to a quick 2-0 in the second, with the first run coming on a Tommy Tabak fly ball that bounced off the top of the left field wall and back into play. The umpires first ruled it a triple, but after a brief discussion changed it to a home run.
 
NMSU then strung together a pair of two-out hits off of DSU starter Brett Porthan (ND) to plate the second run of the early rally.
 
Dixie State (17-24/11-12 WAC) quickly answered with two runs of its own in the third on three hits and one Aggie error to even the game at 2-2. Mathew Ivancich and Jack Walker both singled to lead off the frame, and after both base runners were bunted over, Parker Schmidt singled home Ivancich carrying the Blazers' first run.
 
Then with two outs in the stanza, Schmidt stole second, but the throw to the bag hit Aggie pitcher Pablo Cortes (ND), which allowed Walker to scamper home from third to tie the game.
 
The Trailblazers then erupted for seven runs in the fourth to take a commanding 9-2 lead. Sean Keating led off the inning with his first home run in a DSU uniform, which was followed one batter later by Tyler Hollow's second solo homer of the season to make it a 4-2 game.
 
The Hollow homer started a string of seven-straight Trailblazer base hits, which included a Shane Taylor RBI-double, followed by run-scoring singles from Schmidt, Kaden Hollow and Zach Thomas. Then with two outs in the frame, Tyson Fisher capped the rally with a ground-rule double to right field that plated Thomas with the seventh run.
 
NM State came back with a run in the home fourth on balk, but Schmidt would collect his third hit and third RBI on the day with a two-out double in the DSU fifth to push the Blazer advantage back to seven runs at 10-3.
 
The Aggies would not go away quietly though as they led off their half of the fifth with four-straight hits, three of which went for extra bases, as part of a four-run rally that chased Porthan and cut the DSU lead to 10-7.
 
Dixie State managed to get two of those runs back in the sixth, cashing in a pair of one-out walks with a Tyler Hollow double and a perfectly executed Ivancich suicide squeeze bunt that turned into an RBI-single to extend the Blazer lead to 12-7.
 
NM State threatened for more in its half of the sixth, loading the bases with no outs on Blazer reliever Trevor Meisner. Meisner came back to strike out the next batter he faced, but gave way to freshman Jacob Taggart out of the DSU bullpen.
 
Taggart's first batter he faced with the bases loaded was the WAC's leading home run leader Logan Gallina, who the freshman struck out on three-straight pitches for the second out. Taggart would then get Tabak to line out to third, but not before a wild pitch allowed one run to score that trimmed the DSU lead to 12-8.
 
The Trailblazers countered with three more runs in the seventh, all via the home run, to push their lead back to seven at 15-8. Taylor singled to lead off the frame ahead of Schmidt, who drilled his second homer of the year over the left field wall to put DSU up six.
 
Then after a pitching change, Kaden Hollow greeted Aggie reliever Cade Swenson with a first-pitch home run over the right field wall. The homer was the younger Hollow's sixth of the year, and marked the second time in two weeks that both Hollow brothers had homered in the same game (at UVU; 4/16).
 
However the Trailblazer pitching staff could not get a shutdown inning as NM State sent 10 batters to the plate after the stretch and scored six more runs on seven hits and a DSU error to pull to within a run at 15-14.
 
Fortunately for Dixie State, the Aggies were not able to record a shutdown inning either as the Blazers scored in their sixth-straight inning, this time it was on an Ivancich solo homer with one out in the stanza that staked DSU to a slim 16-14 cushion.
 
Dixie State finally got its first 1-2-3 inning since the first inning in the home eighth when reliever Jimmy Borzone retired the Aggies in order on eight pitches.

DSU tacked on two more unearned runs in the ninth, and it turned out those were important runs as NM State led off the home ninth with three-straight hits, the last of which scored a run to cut the lead to 18-15. However Borzone (S, 1) came back to strike out the side from there to end the game.
 
All nine Trailblazers in the line-up had at least one hit and one run scored, including eight with two or more hits, while eight different Blazers drove in runs on the afternoon.
 
Schmidt finished a triple shy of the cycle as he finished the day with career-highs of four hits and five RBI. Meanwhile Ivancich pounded out a career-best four hits, highlighted by his third homer of the year, to go along with three runs.
 
While the 22 hits and five homers on Saturday were DSU team season highs, the 18 runs scored tied a season high set in an 18-7 road win at Sacramento State back on March 12. It also marked the eighth time this season that Dixie State had scored 10 or more runs in a game.
 
Dixie State will go for the road series win in Sunday's finale beginning at 12:05 p.m. (MT).