The Trailblazers have their first home conference games of the year hosting New Mexico State this weekend. The game will begin with a Friday double header with the first pitch at 2:00 PM and the second game to follow. On Saturday they will wrap the set with a noon first pitch against the Aggies.


RUNNING BACK LAST WEEK:
The Trailblazers opened the week with a late addition to the schedule taking on BYU at home Thursday afternoon. Utah Tech dropped a tightly contested ball game 1-3. The main series of the week was down in Texas at Abilene Christian where the Trailblazers swept the wild cats in the WAC opening series. They took the first game 12-2 in five innings and then swept the double header in extras with a 6-5 win in a nine-inning game Saturday afternoon. Sunday the Trailblazers finished the job with an offensive explosion winning the game 14-9.


ROOT ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM:
Utah Tech is 296-83 overall at home in the NCAA era.
The Trailblazers are 253-69 at home under head coach Randy Simkins.
The Blazers are a stellar 8-2 at Karl Brooks Field this season.


ON THE ROAD AGAIN:
Utah Tech is 184-108 overall on the road.
The Trailblazers are 161-87 on the road under head coach Randy Simkins.
During the 2023 season, UT is 10-7 away from Karl Brooks field.


RECORDS AND STANDINGS:
The Trailblazers enter the weekend with a 18-9 overall record. Sitting atop the WAC standings.

Coming into 2023, UT was picked No. 8 in the WAC Preseason Coaches Polls and had Hannah Hughbanks along with Shea Clements selected to the WAC Preseason All-Conference team.


AT THE PLATE:
The Trailblazers are hitting .319 with a ..436 slugging percentage. The team has racked up 240 hits with 44 doubles, seven triple, and 10 home runs.


IN THE CIRCLE:
Trailblazers pitchers have a team ERA of 3.37. Opponents are hitting .269 with 194 hits and 15 home runs. Utah Tech pitchers have combined for two shutout.


LEADING THE WAY:
The Trailblazers are led by Tanya Windle who is hitting .451 with 41 hits that include three doubles, two triple, and a home run. Windle has also napped one WAC player of the week honor. In the power category Lauren Almeida is the star with a slugging percentage of .731 and a team leading 14 extra base hits including a triple and three home runs with a team high 19 RBI.


In the circle the Trailblazers ace is Sauren Garton. She has pitched in 13 games completing seven of them with two shutouts. She has a team best 2.57 ERA while holding batters to a .221 batting average across 68 innings.


CONSISTENT SPOT:
This season there are five Trailblazers that have playing in all 27 games and five who have started in at least 25 of the 27 (Lauren Almeida, Shea Clements, Carly Eldredge, Hannah Hughbanks, and Tanya Windle.)


BIG WEEKS:
On the week of 3/6 Sauren Garton did not win WAC pitcher of the week but she had a noteworthy weekend in the circle. She threw two complete games surrendering only one run, six hits, just one walk and struck out seven. She was the driving force in helping the Trailblazers take down Pac-12 foe Oregon state 1-0 and beating a red-hot UNLV team 2-1.


In the week of Feb 27th Hannah Hughbanks won WAC player of the week going 7-11 with 6 walks, 8 runs scored, 10 RBI and two home runs. She is the second Trailblazer to win the award this season.


Back in the first week of the season Tanya Windle won the award going 7-16 with three extra base hits and seven RBI.


BLAZERS RAKE IN POST SEASON AWARDS:
Utah Tech placed three Trailblazers in the WAC post season awards in 2022. Hannah Hughbanks and Shea Clements were both named to the First Team while Carly Eldredge was named to the second team.


MOVING UP THE RECORDBOARD
There are several Trailblazers working their way through the teams all-time top-10 lists in various categories.


Senior Hannah Hughbanks holds top 10 spots in doubles (49, 3rd), slugging percentage (.610, 8th), batting average (.375, 8th), walks (74, 8th), triples (5, T-8) and is just three points away from the top-10 in on base percentage (.456)


Taking her 100th at bat just this week Sophomore Lauren Almeida now qualifies to be on the all-time lists for average based stats and has jumped onto three leaderboards on base percentage (.480, 5th), batting average (.388, T-6th), and slugging percentage (.607, T-10th)


Senior Shea Clements is sitting top 10 in stolen bases (38, 8th) and hit by pitches (11, T-9th).


Senior lefty Ashtyn Bauerle is top 10 in fewest walks per seven innings (2.01, 3rd), starts (30, T-10th), and complete games (12, T-10th).


Senior right handers Kate Dolinski has top 10 position in saves (3, T-3rd) and fewest walks per seven innings (2.41, 7th).


All Time vs New Mexico State: The Trailblazers are 2-4 all time playing against the Aggies. The all-time series includes one series in the 2021 season and one series last season with all six games being played in St. George at Karl Brooks field. In last seasons series the Trailblazers took the first two game of the series sweeping a Friday double header 14-2, 13-5. They dropped the final game 9-10 but still secured the series win.


Know Your Foe: New Mexico State comes into the weekend with a 12-11 record including a 3-4 record on the road. They sit at eighth in the WAC. They come off a series last week where they dropped two of three at Utah Valley. On the season they have a team batting average of .281 and are led by Kendal Lunar who is hitting .333 with 18 hits including 13 extra base hits with two home runs. In the circle the Aggies have a team ERA of 6.97 led by Aydenne Brown with a 5.13 ERA across 14 games with 11 starts. She is 6-3 with one complete game.