Baseball | 8/25/2022 1:04:00 PM

Utah Tech head baseball Coach Chris Pfatenhauer announced the Trailblazers' 2023 schedule on Thursday. The Blazers' third year of NCAA Division I play will feature 55 games, including 29 home dates at Bruce Hurst Field, along with match-ups against five 2022 NCAA Regional teams, and home-and-home games against in-state rivals Utah, BYU, and Utah Valley. 

The Blazers will play 19 of their first 24 games at home, highlighted by a 13-game homestand, which starts with a four-game series vs. Portland the weekend of Feb. 17-19. UT will follow that with two more four-game sets against Wichita State (Feb. 24-26) and South Dakota State (March 3-5), before closing the homestand against BYU on Tuesday, March 7.
 
Utah Tech will open the road portion of its 2023 slate with a trip to Stillwater for a four-game series at Big-12 power Oklahoma State (March 10-12), followed by a midweek date at Arizona State on Tuesday, March 14. 
 
UT will return home to open WAC play with a three-game series vs. defending conference tournament champion New Mexico State the weekend of March 17-19. Then after a quick trip back to the desert for a midweek match-up at PAC-12 power Arizona on Tuesday, March 21, the Blazers will host Stephen F. Austin for a three-game WAC series March 24-26.
 
Utah Tech will then play 10 of its final 31 regular season games on the road, starting with an eight-game road swing that kicks off with three WAC games at California Baptist (March 31-April 2). UT will return to the Beehive State for a Tuesday game at Utah on April 4, before making the first of two trips to Texas for a three-game conference set at WAC newcomer UT-Arlington (April 6-8).
 
UT will wrap up the road swing with a midweek match-up at BYU (April 11), which will be followed by a three-game WAC home series vs. Sam Houston (April 14-16). Following that series, Utah Tech will return to Utah County for a midweek non-conference game at Utah Valley on Monday, April 17. 
 
The Blazers will make their third trip to Arizona of the campaign the following weekend for a three-game set at defending WAC regular season (April 21-23), and will close April with a Tuesday home date vs. Utah (April 25), and three home WAC games vs. UVU (April 28-30).
 
Utah Tech will open the final month of the regular season with five road games, starting with a three-game conference series at Abilene Christian (May 5-7), followed by a two-game midweek series at PAC-12 power Oregon (May 9-10).
 
The Trailblazers will then close out its 2023 home slate with a three-game WAC series vs. Seattle U (May 12-14) and will wrap up the regular season with a conference series at Sacramento State (May 18-20).

""We are excited to once again have a tremendous non-conference schedule," said Pfatenhauer. "After playing a top third ranked strength of schedule the past two seasons, the 2023 slate of game should mirror those of 2021 and 2022. 

"Hosting teams such as BYU, Portland, South Dakota State, and Wichita State are huge for a still transitioning program like ours," Pfatenhauer added. "As well as having the ability to go on the road to Oklahoma State, Arizona, ASU, BYU, Utah, and Oregon, will be amazing experiences and tests for our program. We are very excited about the prospect of playing more home games than road games in 2023; the first time that has happened since joining D-I."
 
Utah Tech also enters the upcoming season eligible to compete at the 2023 WAC Baseball Championship Tournament, which will be held May 24-28 at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz. 

Utah Tech (then Dixie State) wrapped up its second NCAA Division I season with a 22-33 overall record, which included a 14-16 conference mark and a fourth-place finish in the WAC's Western Division.