Hunter Katschke tied a school NCAA-era record with five hits and drove in six runs to help Utah Tech power past UC Riverside, 12-3, in the first game of a four-game weekend home series on Friday afternoon at Bruce Hurst Field.
 
The Trailblazers (3-2) blistered UCR pitching for six runs and six hits over their first two offensive frames.
 
Kyle McDaniel led off the home first with a sharp single through the right side ahead of Katschke, who ambushed an 0-1 Kurt Marton (L, 0-1) offering and sent it well over the left field wall to stake Utah Tech to a quick 2-0 advantage. The senior outfielder's long ball was his second homer of the young season.
 
Utah Tech struck for four more runs in the second, all with two outs in the frame. Grady Daniels collected his first collegiate hit on a one-out single deep in the hole at shortstop. Petey Soto Jr. followed with a two-out bunt single, and both base runners would later advance on a wild pitch.
 
After McDaniel walked to load the bases, Katschke lined a single to center field to chase home both Daniels and Soto Jr. to extend the Blazer lead to 4-0. Ryan Kroepel then singled home McDaniel, while Katschke scampered home carrying the fourth run of the rally on a Highlander throwing error. 
 
The early run support bolstered another strong start by sophomore righthander Cade Montgomery (W, 2-0), who faced one over the minimum through his first four innings of work and limited UCR to only two hits. 
 
Utah Tech would plate an add-on run on an Aaron Perez sacrifice fly out in the fourth, before striking for four more runs in the fifth, highlighted by a bases-loaded, two-run Katschke double off the wall in left. 
 
Kroepel followed that with a run-scoring fly out, while Finnegan Stewart singled home Katschke to push the Trailblazer lead to 11-0.
 
UC Riverside (2-3) managed to break through in the sixth with three runs on two hits, and one costly error, which spelled the end of the day for Montgomery with one out in the stanza. 
 
Junior reliever Dax Newman came on out of the bullpen and struck out the final two Highlander batters in the inning to end the threat.
 
In all, three Blazer relievers combined for six strikeouts and limited UC Riverside to only two hits over the final three-plus innings to close out the win.
 
Katschke finished a triple short of the cycle as he went 5-for-5 at the plate with his six RBI and four runs scored. 
 
The senior outfielder became the first Trailblazer in the program's relatively new NCAA Division I era to record five hits in a game, and he became the 16^th-different player in the program's four-year era to drive in at least six runs in a single game. 
 
Meanwhile McDaniel continued his torrid start to the season as pounded out three hits with a walk and scored four runs out of the lead-off spot.
 
Soto Jr. also collected a pair of safeties with two runs scored as the Blazers outhit UCR 14-6. 
 
The two teams will play the middle two games of their four-game weekend series in a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 12:05 p.m.