Tyson Fisher drove in four runs and tied the Dixie State career home run record to help lead the Trailblazers to a 2022 season-ending 14-8 victory over California Baptist on Saturday afternoon at Totman Stadium.
DSU clinched the WAC three-game series with the win to finish its second NCAA Division-I season at 22-33 overall, 14-16 in Western Athletic Conference play. In addition, DSU Head Coach
Chris Pfatenhauer picked up his 300
th victory as Trailblazer skipper (300-193-1).
DSU quickly got on the board with an unearned run in the first when
Kaden Hollow flew out to deep center field to drive home
Shane Taylor, who reached on a lead-off walk and advanced to third on a groundout and an error.
CBU (32-20/18-12 WAC) would draw even with a run the home second, but the Trailblazers countered with three runs in the fourth, all of which came via the home run, to bolt out to a 4-1 advantage.
Kaden Hollow led off the frame with his ninth long ball of the season, an opposite field shot to left, which was also DSU's first hit of the day.
Then after
Tyson Fisher drew a walk,
Tyler Hollow (4) turned on a Liam Rocha pitch and drilled it over the wall in right field to give DSU a three-run cushion. It marked the third time this season that the Hollow brothers had homered in the same game, and it was the first time the duo went yard in the same inning.
The Lancers managed to get one of those runs back in their half of the fourth on a Jake Skipworth lead off homer. David Martin followed with a walk, which spelled the end of the day for DSU starter
Dillon Holliday.
CBU could not do anything with the baserunner though, as reliever
Jimmy Borzone came on to strike out the side to get the game to the fifth inning.
The Blazers continued their homer barrage in the fifth when after Taylor walked and
Kaden Hollow was plunked, Fisher unloaded on a Rocha high fastball and launched over the netting well above the left field scoreboard to extend the Dixie State lead to 7-2.
Fisher's homer, his 11
th of the season (t-5
th on DSU single-season list), marked the fourth-straight game the junior had gone deep. In addition, it was the 32
nd round tripper of his career, which moved him into a tie atop DSU's career home run list with former teammate
Jake Engel (32; 2017-21).
Meanwhile Borzone held CBU in check in his three innings of work, striking out eight while allowing only one hit. However the Lancers managed to solve the senior righthander in their second time through the lineup against him, turning two seventh-inning walks into three runs when Chad Castillo made it a 7-5 game with a homer to right field.
Then with a runner on and one out, Borzone gave way to southpaw
Ben Hart, who worked around a walk of his own but did record the final two outs of the stanza to keep the Blazer lead intact.
DSU got off the deck and answered the Lancer rally with five runs in the eighth to take its biggest lead of the day at 12-5.
Jagun Leavitt brought in the first run with a bases-loaded walk, while Taylor singled through a drawn in infield to drive in two more runs.
Kaden Hollow followed that up with an RBI-single to center and Fisher lined out to left to cap the rally.
Dixie State scored 14 runs despite only rapping out eight total hits, though the Blazers' first three hits of the day did leave the ballpark. The Trailblazers did manage to draw six walks and were hit by five Lancer pitches.
The top-seven Blazers in the line-up each wound up with at least one hit, with
Kaden Hollow leading the way with two hits along three RBI and two runs scored, while Taylor went 1-for-3 with two RBI and three runs.
Borzone (W, 1-3) picked up his first decision of the season in his final appearance as a Trailblazer. The senior finished with those eight strikeouts in 3.1 innings of relief to finish his stellar career tied for second all-time in program history with 183 punchouts (Mike Dedrick – 183, 2011-13). Meanwhile Hart worked the final 2.2 innings to earn his second save of the year.
