Game Times (Mountain):
Friday - 4:05 p.m.
Saturday (DH) - 12:05 p.m./3:30 p.m. (approx)
Sunday - 12:05 p.m.
Game Notes: UTAH TECH - PDF | WSU - PDF
Live Streaming: GAME #1 - WACINT | GAME #2 - WACINT | GAME #3 - WACINT | GAME #4 - WACINT
Live Stats: GAME #1 | GAME #2 | GAME #3 | GAME #4
Twitter: @UtahTech_Sports | @UtahTech_BASE | #UtahTechBlazers | #WACbsb

PROBABLE STARTERS:
Friday (G1) – RHP #40 Dylan Gardner (Utah Tech debut) vs. RHP #44 Grant Taylor (2023 - 3-4, 6.43 ERA)
Saturday (G2) – LHP #24 Evan Vasiliou (2023 - 1-3, 7.52 ERA) vs. LHP #28 Spencer Jones (2023 - 1-0, 5.05 ERA)
Saturday (G3) – LHP #6 Carston Herman (2023 - 208, 9.35 ERA) vs. RHP #20 Connor Wilford (2023 - 2-2, 5.32 ERA)
Sunday (G4) – RHP #34 Ky Decker (Utah Tech debut) vs. RHP #49 Duke Brotherton (2023 - 2-0, 5.82 ERA)

FIRST PITCH: Utah Tech (0-0/0-0 WAC) opens its fourth NCAA Division I season this weekend with a four-game series vs. PAC-12 member Washington State (0-0) at Bruce Hurst Field. 
            The Trailblazers "Opening Day" will be this Friday against the Cougars at 4:05 p.m., followed by a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 12:05 p.m., and the series finale on Sunday at 12:05 p.m.
 
ALL-TIME SERIES: This weekend's series will mark second time in four seasons that Utah Tech will open its season with a four-game home series vs. Washington State.
            In Utah Tech's first D-I campaign in 2021, the Trailblazers and Cougars tangled at Bruce Hurst Field, where the visitors wound up sweeping the four-game set. 
 
UTAH TECH ON THE WEB: All Utah Tech home games, along with all WAC away games, this season will be streamed live online on either WAC International(wacinternational.tv) or ESPN+ (plus.espn.com).
 
COACHING STAFF: Two-time Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year Chris Pfatenhauer begins his 12th season as head coach of the Utah Tech Baseball program. During his tenure in the UT dugout, Pfatenhauer led the Trailblazers to consecutive PacWest titles in 2014 and 2015, and to five-straight trips to the NCAA West Regionals from 2013-17, including serving as the host institution in 2013. 
            Pfatenhauer, who picked up his 300th victory as UT skipper in the 2022 season finale at California Baptist (14-8; 5/21/2022), owns a 313-232-1 (.574) overall record at Utah Tech, and a 365-291-1 (.556) career mark. 
            Joining Pfatenhauer (UNLV, 2000) in the Trailblazer dugout this season is associate head coach Bobby Rinard (Arizona, 2014), who is in his 10th season on coaching staff overall, along with first-year pitching coach Daniel Stange (UC Riverside, 2015), and former Trailblazer Braxton Ipson (Utah Tech 2020), who moves into an assistant coach role after serving as director of baseball operations last season. 
 
QUICK 2023 RECAP: Utah Tech wrapped up its third NCAA Division I season with a 13-39 overall record, which included a 8-22 mark and a 13th-place Western Athletic Conference finish.
 
TRAILBLAZERS VOTED 11TH IN WAC PRESEASON POLL: Utah Tech was picked to finish 11th in the Western Athletic Conference as the league office announced its 2024 baseball preseason poll on Feb. 6. 
            Grand Canyon received nine first-place votes and 99 voting points to top the 2024 preseason coaches poll. Utah Valley (75 pts) and California Baptist (74 pts) each split the final two first-place votes to finish second and third in the poll, respectively.
            Abilene Christian (70 pts) wound up being selective fourth, followed by UT Arlington (68) in fifth, UTRGV (59 pts) in sixth, Sacramento State (54 pts) in seventh, Seattle U (39 pts) in eighth, Tarleton (34 pts) in ninth, Stephen F. Austin (19 pts) in 10th and Utah Tech (16 pts) in 11th. 
            The top eight teams in the conference standings will advance on to the 2024 WAC Baseball Championship Tournament, which will be held May 22-26 at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz.
 
PLENTY OF BUZZ: Though no Utah Tech player was voted to the WAC's preseason all-conference team, several Trailblazers are generating plenty of preseason buzz.
            Freshman SS Petey Soto Jr. was named to the Perfect Game all-WAC preseason team and was the publication's pick for Freshman of the Year.
            In addition, Perfect Game has listed three Blazers in its top-10 2024 Major League Baseball Draft prospects list, including junior LHP Justin Woodbury (#4), and a pair of newcomers in junior 1B Aaron Perez (#3) and RHP Dylan Gardner (#5).
            Meanwhile, Perfect Game has sophomore outfielder Karson Irvin listed as the fourth-best prospect on its 2025 Draft list, and Soto Jr. made it on the 2026 Draft list. 
 
OPENING DAY: Utah Tech is 9-8 all-time on "Opening Day" during its NCAA era and has won five of its last eight, and nine of its previous 14 season debuts overall. 
            In addition, Utah Tech now owns a 10-7 overall record in home openers, 4-4 in season openers at home. Meanwhile the Trailblazers are 8-9 all-time in road openers, and they are 5-4 in season-opening road games overall.
 
A LOOK AT THE 2023 SCHEDULE: Utah Tech's fourth year of NCAA Division I play features 56 games, including 27 home dates at Bruce Hurst Field, along with match-ups against two 2023 NCAA Regional teams, 11 total games against Power-5 conference schools, and home-and-home games against in-state rivals BYU, Utah, and Utah Valley. 
            The Trailblazers will play eight of its first nine games at home, including this weekend's series vs. Washington State. Then following a mid-week road date at 2023 NCAA regional participant Arizona on Feb. 20, the Blazers return home for a three-game series vs. CSUN (Feb. 23-25), and a single game vs. UNLV (Feb. 27).
            Utah Tech will begin March with an eight-game road trip, starting with a three-game series at Wichita State (March 1-3). The Blazers then head to Stillwater for a pair of games at Big-12 power and 2023 regional participant Oklahoma State (March 5-6), before opening its fourth WAC season with a three-game set at UT Arlington (March 8-10).
            Utah Tech will open the home portion of its WAC slate one week later with three games vs. Sacramento State (March 15-17), followed by a home mid-week showdown vs. in-state rival BYU (March 19). 
            The Blazers will also play mid-week road games at Utah (March 26), at UNLV (April 9-10), and BYU, and home mid-week games vs. Nevada (April 22), Utah Valley (non-conference April 29) and Utah (May 7), and will play a four-game non-conference road series at Cal Poly (May 10-12)
 
HOME SWEET HOME: Utah Tech finished its 2023 home slate with an 11-18 record, which marked the first time in the program's NCAA era that it had posted a losing season at Bruce Hurst Field. 
            The Trailblazers 11-18 mark included a 6-9 WAC record, and Utah Tech's 300th NCAA-era home victory, which came in a 12-4 series-opening win over Wichita State back on Feb. 22. 
            In all, Utah Tech has played to a 307-137 (.691) overall record in 444 games played inside the friendly confines of Bruce Hurst Field since the start of its four-year era in the 2007 season.
            UT has posted a winning home record in 15 of 17 seasons since transitioning to NCAA status in 2007, which includes an 11-11 at home in 2022. 
            Utah Tech had won 20 or more home games in eight of those 16 seasons overall, including 21-5 (.807) record in 2017, and a 24-6 mark (.800) in 2016, which was the second-best home record in terms of wins in the program's NCAA era (26-7 in 2009). 
            The 24 home wins in 2016 were the most under Head Coach Chris Pfatenhauer, while the .807 winning percentage in 2017 was the best W% in Pfatenhauer's tenure.
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Despite the 2-21 mark on the road last year, Utah Tech has managed to hold its own away from home in its NCAA era as the Trailblazers have played to a 170-198-1 overall road record (.462).
            Utah Tech had posted a winning road record in eight of their last 14 seasons overall, highlighted by a 16-7-1 road mark in 2017. The 16 road wins were the most since beginning NCAA play in 2007.
            In 2015, Utah Tech went a program-best 15-5 on the road (.750), and UT has won at least 10 road games in nine of its last 11 seasons overall. When you also figure in neutral-site games (14-11 in 25 games), Utah Tech is 184-205-1 (.473) all-time away from Bruce Hurst Field in the program's NCAA era.
 
HERE'S TO THE NEXT 400: Utah Tech picked up its 400th win in the program's NCAA era in the series opener vs. UCCS (6-1) on March 16, 2019. UT is currently 492-347-1 (.586) all-time through 16-plus years of NCAA competition (840 games). 
 
FREE BASEBALL: After not playing an extra inning game in two full seasons in 2019 and 2020, Utah Tech has played in 13 extra inning affairs since its move to Division I, all of which have come over the Blazers' last 129 games, including four last season. 
            Unfortunately for the Trailblazers, they came out on the short end of all four of those games, including the series opener at GCU (2-4; 4/21) in 12 innings. That result was the second 12-inning game in the program's current NCAA Division I transition (4-3 all-time in 12 inning games).
            The other three extra inning losses have all come at home, two of which in the SFA series in 10-inning losses in games one (10-13; 3/24) and three (5-6; 3/26). UT also fell in 10 innings in game two vs. Wichita State (L, 3-5; 2/24).  
            The Trailblazers are currently 4-9 in extra inning games during their D-I transition, and 35-24 (.593) overall in 59 total extra-inning games in the program's four-year era. Utah Tech is 17-13 in 10-inning games, and the program has won nine of its last 20 extra inning games overall. 
 
QUICK 2024 SEASON PREVIEW: Utah Tech returns six starting position players and two primary starting pitchers, along with 22 letter winners, from last season's squad.
            The left side of the infield will see a pair of freshmen play a prominent role. Soto Jr., who was tabbed as the 2023 Utah 4A Player of the Year at St. George's Crimson Cliffs HS, could be the opening day starter at shortstop. Meanwhile, Kyle McDonald (Pahrump, Nev./Pahrump HS) is slated to be the probable starter at third base.
            Redshirt sophomore Garrett Cutting (2023 - .258/4 HR/18 RBI) will also see time at shortstop, while junior JC transfer Brennen Study (Ocean Springs, Miss./Meridian CC) and senior catcher Morgan Albrecht (2023 - .094/2 2B) could also factor into playing time at third.
            Junior Ethan He (2023 - .265/4 HR/20 RBI) has moved from shortstop to second base, where he and senior Blake Borgogno (2023 - .236/11 RBI/10 SB) will both split starting duties. At first base, Perez (Santa Ana, Calif./Cypress College) will be the opening day starter, with Study and freshman Josh Rojas (Orem, Utah/American Fork HS) serving as back-ups.   
            Senior Hank Dodson (2023 - .222/4 HR/19 RBI), who started in 38 of 43 games played last season, is back as the Blazers' primary backstop, with Albrecht and newcomer Connor Tallakson (Irvine, Calif./Irvine Valley College) serving as primary back-ups. 
            Senior Chase Rodriguez (2023 - .270/5 HR/27 RBI), who is Utah Tech's top returning hitter, is listed as the starter in left field, with sophomore Levi Randall (2023 - .125/5 R) and JUCO transfer Ethan Royal (Arroyo Grande, Calif./Cuesta College) also figuring into the mix.  
            Irvin (2023 - .229/4 RBI/12 R), along with senior Jack Walker (2023 - .216/1 HR/13 RBI) and Royal will all vie for time in center field, while JUCO transfer Hunter Katschke (Las Vegas/College of Southern Nevada) will be the opening day starter in right field with redshirt sophomore Cayden Clark (2023 - .214/1 HR/5 RBI) providing depth at that position. 
            On the mound, southpaws Evan Vasiliou (So., 2023 - 1-3/7.52 ERA/21 K/20.1 IP) and Carston Herman (Jr., 2023 - 2-8/9.35/49 K/52.0 IP) are slated to start both ends of Saturday's twin bill vs. Washington State. Gardner, who transferred to Utah Tech from Arizona State, (Jr., RHP; Boise, Idaho) will get the Opening Day start, while fellow junior RHP Ky Decker (Orem, Utah/USU-Eastern) will take the ball in Sunday's series finale. 
            Including Vasiliou and Herman, Utah Tech returned 12 total pitchers from a year ago, with Woodbury, senior Ryan Hardman (2023 - 1-7/9.50 ERA/40 K/41.2 IP) and junior Jacob Taggart (2023 - 0-3/7.18 ERA/27 K/26.1 IP), all figuring in the mix out of the Trailblazer bullpen.
            In addition, newcomers Matt Nelson (Jr., RHP; Laguna Niguel Calif./Orange Coast College), and Cade Montgomery (RHP; Kaysville, Utah/Davis HS) will all play a factor in the late innings, while JUCO transfer Carson Bonus (Las Vegas/CSN) will be looked upon to serve as the closer to begin the year. 
 
NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Utah Tech heads to Tucson for a Tuesday match-up at PAC-12 power Arizona. First pitch at Hi Corbett Field is set for 2 p.m. (MT).