Utah Tech baseball opened its final home series of the 2023 season with a 9-2 loss to WAC foe Seattle U on Friday night at Bruce Hurst Field. 
 
Trailing 3-0 heading into the home fourth, Utah Tech (12-35/7-18 WAC) broke through with a Zach Thomas lead off home run. Thomas ambushed the first pitch he saw from Redhawk starter Peter Chronowski (W, 4-7) and deposited well over the left field wall for his sixth long ball of the season.
 
Then after Seattle U (18-28/14-11 WAC) countered with run in the fifth inning, Blazer catcher Hank Dodson connected for his fourth homer of the year with one out in the sixth to again pull the Trailblazers within two runs at 4-2 heading to the seventh.
 
From there however it was all Redhawks as they struck for three runs in the eighth, and tacked on two more in the ninth. Meanwhile, Seattle U reliever Mason Hoover (S, 4) limited Utah Tech to just one hit and a walk over the final three innings to close out the game. 
 
Dodson, who has now homered in two-straight games, went 2-for-2 on the night with two walks. Garrett Cutting also collected two hits, including his ninth double of the season, as Utah Tech finished with eight safeties on the night. Of note, senior OF/DH Tyson Fisher (205) became Utah Tech's career leader in games played when he led off the Trailblazer second inning. 
 
Junior righthander Brett Porthan (L, 6-4) struck out four and allowed only three earned runs (four total) over his first seven solid innings of work. However the Blazer hurler was chased with one out in the eighth and suffered his first loss in his last eight appearances overall. 
 
The two teams will play the middle game of their three-game WAC series on Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:05 p.m.