Utah Tech saw a ninth-inning rally come up just short as the Trailblazers dropped the first game of their weekend road WAC series at Tarleton State, 3-2, on Friday night at the Tarleton Baseball Complex. 
 
The Trailblazers (17-22/3-10 WAC) got off to a good start offensively when lead-off hitter Kyle McDaniel lined a single to center field. The base knock extended the sophomore second baseman's hit streak to a career-high 10 games.

McDaniel's single also broke Utah Tech's NCAA Division-I era school record as he has now reached base safely in 25-straight games. The previous school record was held by former Utah Tech catcher Kaden Hollow, who reached base safely in 24-straight games during the 2022 season.  
 
Unfortunately that would be it for the Utah Tech offense over the next six-plus innings as Texans righthander Brian Panneton (W, 5-2) retired the next 19 Blazer hitters he faced, including six on strikes.
 
Meanwhile, Trailblazer starter Cade Montgomery (ND) also had it going on the mound as he limited Tarleton State (18-25/6-7 WAC) to only one hit and two total base runners through his first three innings of work.
 
However Montgomery's night would come to an early end after he got the final out of that third inning, this after he took a comebacker off his right foot in recording the first out of the frame. 
 
Tarleton State scored all the runs it would need in the home fifth after a lead-off error led to three two-out unearned runs. 
 
The Trailblazers finally ended Panneton's run with a one-out Ryan Kroepel single in the seventh, but the Texan hurler quelled any thought of a possible rally by inducing an inning-ending double play to send the game to the stretch.

In the Utah Tech ninth, the first two Blazer hitters managed to get on base without benefit of a hit. Petey Soto Jr. advanced to first base after striking out on a wild pitch, while McDaniel reached on an error on a possible double play ball.
 
Kroepel then loaded the bases with a one-out single, which was followed by a Hunter Katschke groundout that plated Soto Jr. Finnegan Stewart followed with an infield single, which chased McDaniel home carrying the second run of the rally.

That would be as close as the Blazers would get as Texan reliever Aden Lucas (S, 1) retired Aden Dance on strikes to end the game.
 
Utah Tech finished with five hits on the night, with Kroepel accounting for two of those safeties. Blazer reliever Tyler Ray (L, 3-2) pitched four innings of solid relief after the Montgomery injury, though he was saddled with the hard-luck loss after that Tarleton fifth inning.
 
The two teams will play game two of their three-game conference series on Saturday afternoon beginning at 2 p.m. (MT).