Utah Tech baseball gave No. 20 UC Irvine all it wanted and more, but the Trailblazers came up just short in their upset bid by an 8-4 count in their 2025 road opener on Wednesday night at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark in Irvine. 
 
After spotting the ranked Anteaters a run in the home first, Utah Tech (3-6) took its first lead of the night on a towering two-run home run from Aaron Perez with two outs in the second inning. 
 
Andrew Pyle kept the inning alive with a double down the third base line ahead of Perez, who blasted a 1-0 Finnegan Wall offering over the wall in right center for his long ball of the season.
 
UC Irvine (5-3) wrestled the lead back with a two-run homer of its own off the bat of Zach Fjelsted, only to the Trailblazers clap back with two mores run in the top of the third jump back on top at 4-3.
 
Ethan Royal reached on a lead-off single, then after a sacrifice bunt and strikeout, Ryan Kroepel tripled to right center off of Wall to chase Royal home with the tying run. Blazer DH Finnegan Stewart followed that with a line-drive single on a 3-2 Wall fastball to put Utah Tech back out in front. 
 
UCI pulled even in the home third and regained the lead with another run in the fifth, and threatened for more with the bases loaded and two outs. Utah Tech made call to the bullpen, and reliever Tyler Ray came on to strike out Anteater shortstop Colin Yeaman on three pitches to escape the jam.
 
The Anteaters would again load the bases in the sixth, only this time they cashed in the chance with a two-run Blake Penso double to extend the UCI lead to 7-4. 
 
UCI tacked on an insurance run in the seventh, while two Anteater relievers combined to limit the Trailblazers to only one base runner over the final three innings to close out the win.
 
Utah Tech finished with eight hits on the night, with Pyle accounting for two of those safeties.
 
Meanwhile, five Blazer hurlers combined to strike out 13 Anteaters, including a career-high seven punch outs in three innings for junior righthander Jonah Marshall (ND), who made his second career start on Wednesday night. 
 
Fjelstad finished a single shy of the cycle as he went 3-for-5 with two RBI to lead UC Irvine, which clubbed 10 hits on the night. 
 
Utah Tech continues its week-long road trip with a four-game wrap-around weekend series at Portland this Friday-through-Monday.