Utah Tech saw its road to the 2025 Western Athletic Conference tournament title come to an abrupt end on Thursday night after a 9-5 heartbreaking loss to Abilene Christian in an elimination bracket quarterfinal game at Hohokam Stadium.
 
With the loss, the eighth-seeded Trailblazers end their season with a 24-31 overall record, a 10-win turnaround from a season ago, and also included the program's first Division-I era postseason appearance.
 
Utah Tech found itself facing an early deficit after the Wildcats (32-22) pounced for three quick runs before an out was recorded in the top of the first inning.
 
Trailblazer reliever Aaron Morris was eventually called upon bullpen with two outs in that opening stanza and steadied the ship, firing 5.1 innings of three-hit shutout relief. Morris struck out three over his five-plus innings of work, which was his collegiate career long outing.
 
Meanwhile, Wildcat hurler Brett Lanman retired the first 10 Blazer hitters he faced until Kace Naone legged out a one-out double in the home fourth.
 
Naone would later score Utah Tech's first run of the game when Hunter Katschke laced a two-out single to left field.
 
Utah Tech drew a run closer in the fifth when after Ethan Royal singled and stole second, Petey Soto Jr. lined a two-out single to left center to chase home the Royal and make it a 3-2 game. 
 
The Blazers kept the two-out RBI theme going in the sixth, this time it was Aaron Perez doing the honors with an opposite single to left field to bring Naone around from second base with the tying run in tow after he reached on a lead-off walk.
 
ACU threatened to break the tie in the seventh, loading the bases with three-consecutive, two-out walks. However Blazer reliever Dax Newman bounced back to strike out pinch hitter Jack Nielsen to keep the game tied at the stretch.
 
Utah Tech's two-out magic continued in the home seventh with two more runs, thanks in part to two costly errors committed by WAC's top defensive team, to come all the way back and take a 5-3 lead.
 
Kyle McDaniel reached on a two-out infield miscue, then stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw by the ACU catcher on the play.
 
Then after back-to-back walks to Naone and Ryan Kroepel, Katschke dumped a single into shallow right center to drive in both McDaniel and Naone to spot Utah Tech the two-run cushion. 
 
After a scoreless eighth inning, the magic unfortunately ran out on Utah Tech as ACU sent 11 batters to the plate as part of a six-run rally to wrestle the lead back. 

The Trailblazers tried to mount one last charge in their final swings as McDaniel singled and Naone walked to begin the stanza. However Wildcat reliever Brady Coe (W, 3-0) would retire the final three Blazer hitters he faced to close out the game.  
 
Utah Tech rapped out eight hits on the night, with Katschke accounting for two of those safeties to go along with a game-high three RBI. 
 
McDaniel finished the night going 1-for-5 at the plate with a run scored to extend his hit streak to 14-straight games, and his school record on-base streak to 41-straight games. 
 
McDaniel closed his sophomore campaign having reached base safely in 53 of Utah Tech's 55 games overall, including 44 of those outings via a base hit.