Utah Tech opened the home portion of its 2024 Western Athletic Conference slate with a hard fought 9-7 victory over Sacramento State on Friday night at Bruce Hurst Field. 
 
A win did not look to be in the offing for the Trailblazers (4-14/2-2 WAC) in the early going after Sacramento State owned a 4-0 lead through three innings complete.
 
The Hornets (7-10/2-2 WAC) struck for three first inning runs, two of which came on a two-run JP Smith home run. Smith followed that with his WAC-leading 11 homer of the year to lead off the third.
 
Meanwhile Hornet starter Tyler Stewart (ND) needed only 34 pitches to get through three spotless innings. 
 
Utah Tech finally solved Stewart in the home fourth, which started with an Ethan Royal lead-off double. Then after Royal took third on a ground out, Hunter Katschke cut the deficit in half with his team-leading fourth homer of the year. 
 
The Blazers continued their rally one inning later when after Kyle McDaniel doubled and Ethan He singled with one out, Royal executed a safety squeeze to chase home McDaniel to make it a 4-3 game.
 
Aaron Perez then pulled the Trailblazers even three pitches later with a sharp single to right field, which spelled the end of the day for the Hornet righthander.
 
Utah Tech kept the momentum going in the sixth, plating three more runs on RBI-singles from Brennen Study and He. Study later capped the rally when he beat home a two-out, double-steal attempt to make it a 7-4 game.
 
Sophomore southpaw Evan Vasiliou entered the game in the fourth in relief of starter Dylan Gardner (ND) and immediately cooled the Sacramento State bats, retiring eight of the first nine Hornets he faced. 
 
Sacramento State had a chance to cut into the Trailblazer lead with two on and two outs in the sixth, but a Gunner Gouldsmith lined shot back to the mound was knocked down by Vasiliou, who recovered and flipped the ball to Perez at first base to end the threat.
 
The Hornets threatened again in the seventh, but again the sophomore lefthander quelled a possible one-out rally by inducing an inning-ending double play to send the game to the stretch.
 
However Sacramento State managed to break through with three two-out hits, including a Gouldsmith two-run double off the left field wall to knot the game at 7-7.
 
Utah Tech clapped back in the home eighth with a little two-out magic of its own when Garrett Cutting lined a shot through the left side to chase home Chase Rodriguez and Brennen Study to break the tie.
 
Senior hurler Ryan Hardman (S, 2) then came on and retired the Hornets in order in the ninth to close out the series opening win. 
 
The Trailblazers pounded out 14 hits over their final six offensive frames, six of which went for extra bases. 
 
In fact, all nine starters had at least one base hit, while Cutting, who blooped a pinch hit double in the sixth, tallied two hits. Katschke, Hank Dodson and He also collected two hits apiece as Utah Tech tied a season high for base hits.
 
Vasiliou (W, 2-2) picked up his second winning decision in as many outings as he fanned four over five solid innings of relief.   
 
The two teams will play the middle game of their WAC series on Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:05 p.m.