Utah Tech saw its seven-game win streak come to an end in a hard-fought 8-7 road loss at California Baptist in the second game of its 2025 WAC season-opening series on Saturday night at Totman Stadium.
 
The Trailblazers (14-12/1-1 WAC) had the bats dialed in in the early going, combining to belt six extra-base hits en route to a 5-1 lead heading into CBU home fourth.
 
Utah Tech struck for a pair of first inning runs, the first coming on a towering Hunter Katschke solo home run over the left centerfield with one out in the frame. It was the senior's fifth round-tripper of the season, which pulled him into a tie for the team lead.
 
Finnegan Stewart followed with a two-out double deep in the gap in right center, and would score the Blazers' second run on a near copy-cat two-bagger off the bat of Aaron Perez three pitches later.
 
After CBU (12-11/1-1 WAC) cut the deficit in half with a Ryan Kim solo homer in the second, the Blazers belted two more long balls in fourth to open up a four-run cushion.
 
Ryan Kroepel drilled his third long ball on the year with one out in the stanza, then after a Lancer throwing error, Petey Soto Jr. went yard well over the left center wall.
 
Meanwhile, junior righthander Ryan Martinez (ND) had it dialed in early, retiring 11 of the first 13 Lancers he faced with four strikeouts, two of which came to start the CBU fourth.
 
However CBU managed to load the bases after on a two-out walk and consecutive singles ahead of Jake Brown, who laced a bases-clearing double to center to pull the Lancers to within a run at 5-4. 
 
The Blazers thought they would escape the inning with the lead when Martinez induced a shallow Chris Ramirez pop-up, but the defense could not come up the ball cleanly, which allowed Brown scamper home carrying the tying run.
 
Utah Tech jumped back in front an inning later thanks to a pair of lead-off walks to Kyle McDaniel and Stewart and a two-out Lancer throwing error, that allowed both base runners to score and make it a 7-5 game.
 
Martinez came back to strike out the side in order in the home fifth, and collected one more punch out to start the CBU sixth. 
 
The junior hurler then handled a comebacker for the second out and induced a ground ball deep in the hole at short that Lancer catcher Matt Chavez beat out to extend the inning. That brought up Brown, who knotted the game at 7-7 with his fourth homer of the year.
 
CBU eventually broke the tie and took its first lead of the series in the eighth on a Kim one-out bloop single. Lancer reliever Andrew Rudd (W, 2-1), who came on with two outs in the Utah Tech fifth and retired 11-straight Trailblazers with four strikeouts to close out the game.
 
Kroepel and Soto Jr. collected two hits apiece to lead Utah Tech, which pounded out seven total safeties on the night. Martinez finished with a season-high eight strikeouts in six innings of work, but did not figure in the decision.
 
Utah Tech will look to clinch the series win in Sunday's finale beginning at 1 p.m. (MT).