THIS WEEK:
The Trailblazer look to lock-up the regular season WAC championship at home against Utah Valley this weekend. Their magic number sits at two, so with a series win they can guarantee the conference title no matter what second place Grand Canyon does. Game one of the series will be Friday at noon with the final two games of the regular season being a Saturday double header also biggening at noon. For live stats and live streams of this weekend's games go to UtahTechTrailblazers.com


RUNNING BACK LAST WEEK:
The Trailblazers dropped their mid-week match up at BYU 3-4. But they came away with a huge series sweep against their rivals 45 minutes north, Southern Utah. The Trailblazers took game one in an offensive outburst 13-3 in a six-inning run rule game. Then huge tough to sweep the double header with an afternoon 9-6 victory. In the final game of the series the bats stayed hot, and the Trailblazers took down the Thunderbirds 16-6.


It was a huge week for Senior Shea Clements winning WAC hitter of the week. She went 10-14 (.714) on the week including 7-7 withfour steals, three RBI and four runs scored in Saturdays double header alone. In all she had 10 hits, four doubles, four RBI, three walks, and five stolen bases.


ROOT ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM:
Utah Tech is 304-85 overall at home in the NCAA era.
The Trailblazers are 261-71 at home under head coach Randy Simkins.
The Blazers are a stellar 16-4 at Karl Brooks Field this season.


ON THE ROAD AGAIN:
Utah Tech is 189-113 overall on the road.
The Trailblazers are 166-92 on the road under head coach Randy Simkins.
During the 2023 season, UT is 15-12 away from Karl Brooks field.


RECORDS AND STANDINGS:
The Trailblazers enter the weekend with a 31-16 overall record. Sitting atop the WAC standings with a 16-5 conference record two game ahead of Grand Canyon with three games to play.

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 .344 with a .503 slugging percentage. The team has racked up 461 hits with 104 doubles, 14 triple, and 27 home runs.


IN THE CIRCLE:
Trailblazers pitchers have a team ERA of 3.86. Opponents are hitting .289 with 373 hits and 42 home runs. Utah Tech pitchers have combined for three shutouts.


LEADING THE WAY:
The Trailblazers are led by Tanya Windle who is hitting .439 with 68 hits that include nine doubles, six triple, and three home runs. In the power category Shea Clements is the star with a slugging percentage of .679 and 21 extra base hits including two triples and five home runs. Hannah Hughbanks leads the team with 49 RBI and 22 extra base hits.


In the circle the Trailblazers ace is Sauren Garton. She has pitched in 21 games completing seven of them with two shutouts. She has a team best 2.80 ERA while holding batters to a .252 batting average across 102.2 innings.


CONSISTENT STARTERS:
This season there are four Trailblazers that have playing in all 47 games, each of which have started in at least 45 of them (Lauren Almeida, Shea Clements, Hannah Hughbanks, and Tanya Windle).


BIG WEEKS:
Freshman Sauren Garton won WAC pitcher of the week for Apr. 17-22. She came into the Trailblazers 13-2 win and pitched three shut-out innings in relief. She came out of the pen the next day after the Trailblazers got off to a rough start. She kept the team in the game going 6.1 innings giving up just one unearned run setting the team up for their 7-6 walk-off win. With a combine 9.1 innings giving up zero earned runs she was won her first WAC pitcher of the week award joining Kate Dolinski as the second Trailblazer to win the award this season.

On the week of April 3rd-8th senior Kate Dolinski became the first Trailblazer this season to win WAC pitcher of the week. She put up two complete games (one of them five innings due to the run rule) including one full seven inning shutout. Across 12 innings Dolinski surrendered just one earned run while striking out five and walking just 2 at home vs. Seattle U.

On the week of Mar. 6-12 freshman 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. 27 - Apr. 2 senior 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 freshman Tanya Windle won WAC Player of the Week going 7-16 with three extra base hits and seven RBI.


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


Senior Hannah Hughbanks holds top 10 spots in doubles (1st, 61), hits (5th, 208), walks (T-6th, 82), slugging percentage (7th, .613), batting average (7th, .387), triples (T-8th, 5), total bases (8th, 330), and on base percentage (10th, .463).


Sophomore Lauren Almeida finds herself on the all-time lists for batting average (9th, .381), and on base percentage (9th, .467).


Senior Shea Clements is sitting top 10 in stolen bases (T-7th, 43) and hit by pitches (T-9th, 11).


Senior right hander Kate Dolinski has top 10 position in saves (T-3rd, 3), fewest walks per seven innings (9thth, 2.31), appearances (9th, 69), starts (10th, 37), innings (10th, 221.2), and complete games (10th, 13).


Crossing the 100 inning threshold Freshman Sauren Garton now qualifies for the teams all-time lists and jumps in on three of them. Fewest walks per seven innings (1.16),lowest opponent batting average (.252), and most strikeouts per seven innings (4.70).


Sophomore righty Attlyn Johnston is top 10 for strikeouts per seven innings (3rd, 6.92), and fewest walks per seven innings (5th, 2.08).


Senior left hander Ashtyn Bauerle is top 10 in fewest walks per seven innings (4th, 1.99), and strikeouts (10th, 124).


Junior righty Tyler Denhart is eight in strikeouts per seven innings with 5.06.


MILESTONES:
After managing his 700th game in the NCAA era on April first vs UT Arlington head coach Randy Simkins reached another milestone. With the walk-off win April 22nd against California Baptist coach Simkins has now won 500 games as the head man in the NCAA era for the Trailblazers.


In the Trailblazers game at Grand Canyon on April 15th senior Hannah Hughbanks recorded her 200th hit on a 6th inning single and then came around to score what ended up being the game winning run.


The program recorded its 600th NCAA era win in a big WAC match up at Grand Canyon on April 15th.


The second win of the double header vs Seattle U on April 7th secured the Trailblazers 300th home win in the NCAA era.


All Time vs Southern Utah: The Trailblazers have faced Utah Valley nine times dating back to 2021. All nine games have been as WAC rivals. Overall, the Trailblazers are 4-5 vs the Wolverines and are 2-1 at home. Last season the two teams played six games the. The Blazers won two out of three in St. George but dropped two of three in Orem.


Know Your Foe: Southern Utah comes into the weekend with a 17-29 record including a 1-13 record on the road. They sit eighth in the WAC standings with a 10-11 conference record. In action last week they were swept by Seattle U on the road and dropped a game vs. #10 Washington. On the season they have a team batting average of .270 with 26 home runs and are led by Megan Gibbs who is hitting .310 with 39 hits including 18 extra base hits that include 10 home runs. In the circle the Wolverines have a team ERA of 4.65 led by Katie Zuniga with a 4.05 ERA across 31 games with 20 starts. She is 7-16 with eight complete games.