Utah Tech dropped its third-straight Western Athletic Conference series as Abilene Christian completed a three-game home sweep of the Trailblazers with an 11-5 victory on Sunday afternoon at Crutcher Scott Field at Bullock Brothers Ballpark.
 
The Trailblazers (15-25/1-8 WAC) found themselves in an early first inning hole as the first five Wildcats reached base safely against junior righthander Dakoda West (L, 1-6), four of whom managed to come around to score as ACU bolted to a quick 4-0 lead.
 
Utah Tech got up off the deck in the second with pair of runs of its own to cut the deficit in half at 4-2. Ryan Kroepel rapped a one-out single to center ahead of Aaron Perez, who connected for his sixth home run of the season, an opposite blast over the left field wall.   

The Blazers would make it a 4-3 game one inning later when Kace Naone raced home from third on a two-out wild pitch.

Meanwhile West settled in after his rocky start, limiting ACU to one unearned run and three total base runners over his next four innings of work. The junior also picked off one of those base runners, while the Blazer defense turned one double play behind him. 

However ACU (20-14/5-7 WAC) would solve West in the sixth with a two-out walk that came between a pair of singles, the latter of which plated an insurance run to extend the Wildcat lead to 6-3 and chased the junior from the game.
 
Utah Tech would escape the sixth with no further damage, and got off to a great start offensively to begin the seventh when Kroepel lined a single to right field. The ball then skipped past the ACU outfielder and rolled to the right field wall, allowing Kroepel to scamper to third.
 
Perez cashed in the miscue with a single through the right side to score Kroepel, which was followed by an Andrew Pyle base hit and a Levi Randall bunt single that loaded the bases with no outs.
 
Unfortunately the Trailblazers were only able to push across one more run in the rally. ACU starter Cade McGarrh (W, 2-4) induced a double play ball that allowed Perez to score, while reliever Caden Greanead came out of the bullpen to extinguish the rally with a strikeout and send the game to the stretch with the Wildcats clinging to a 6-5 advantage. 
 
Abilene Christian quelled any chance of a Utah Tech comeback win in the home seventh, striking for four two-out runs, with the big blow coming on a two-run Reese Borho homer to right field that staked the Wildcats to a 10-5 lead. 
 
ACU would tack on another run in the eighth, while Greanead (S, 1) held Utah Tech scoreless the rest of the way to close out the Wildcats' home sweep. 
 
Eight of the nine Trailblazers in the starting line-up recorded at least one hit as Utah Tech outhit ACU 10-9. 
 
Kroepel and Perez both finished with two hits and two runs scored to pace the offense. Meanwhile Kyle McDaniel went 1-for-4 on Sunday and wound up batting 8-for-12 (.667) over the three-game set.  
 
Utah Tech returns home for a three-game Easter Weekend series against defending WAC champion Grand Canyon. Game one of the series will be played on Thursday night at Bruce Hurst Field beginning at 6:05 p.m. (MT), followed by game two on Friday night at 6:05 p.m. (MT), and the series finale on Saturday at 12:05 p.m. (MT).