Utah Tech opened the home portion of its 2026 schedule with an 11-8 victory over Northern Colorado on Friday afternoon at Bruce Hurst Field.
 
The Trailblazers (8-1/0-0 WAC) found themselves in an early 3-0 hole after UNCO took advantage of three Utah Tech errors in the top of the second inning. 
 
Utah Tech managed to shrug off the shaky start on the defensive end with its offense, which struck for eight unanswered runs over the next four innings to bolt out to a commanding 8-2 advantage.
 
Ty Johnsen drove in the Blazers' first two runs with a towering two-run home run off the scoreboard in left centerfield in the home second.
 
The Trailblazers followed that with a four-run fourth. Hudson Manwaring tied the game bases-loaded single, then Utah Tech took the lead one batter later when Ryan Kroepel was plunked on a 3-2 pitch.
 
Utah Tech extended to a 6-3 cushion with two outs in the stanza thanks to a two-run Finnegan Stewart opposite field single. The Trailblazers chased that rally with two more runs in the fifth on RBI-hits from Petey Soto Jr. and Manwaring.
 
Meanwhile, senior righthander Tyler Ray (W, 2-1) settled in after that rocky second inning as he retired nine of the next 10 Bears he faced, and wound up tying his career high with five strikeouts in five-plus innings of work.
 
However Northern Colorado (0-9) would solve Ray in the sixth, loading the bases with two outs ahead of Bear third baseman Ethan Fillinger, who cleared the bases with his first homer of the season to make it a one-run game at 8-7.
 
The Blazers clapped back with the long ball in the home sixth with a Miller Durham lead-off blast over the hitter's eye in centerfield. Utah Tech tacked on two more insurance runs after the stretch thanks to a Soto Jr. double and a Durham run scoring fly out.
 
Senior reliever Brock Roundy, who came on with two outs in the sixth, made that lead stand as he set down eight of the first nine Bears he faced, including three on strikes.
 
UNCO mounted one last charge in the when after a one-out Wilson Kieffer pinch-hit single and a passed ball, Bear lead-off hitter Brett Barber drilled a ground-rule double that one hopped the left center wall to pull to within three runs.
 
Then with two outs and a runner on second base, Kroepel (S, 4) was summoned to move from third base to the mound, and the junior closer needed only two pitches to record the final out of the game. 
 
Utah Tech outhit UNCO 11-9, with Manwaring, Durham, Johnsen and Soto Jr. each collecting two hits, while the quartet combined to drive in eight of the Blazers' 11 runs.
 
Junior second baseman Kyle McDaniel, who entered the game with a pair of school-record streaks in tow, managed to extend one of those streaks, but saw another come to an end. 
 
McDaniel officially went 0-for-2 at the plate, which snapped his record 22-game hit streak. However he did draw three walks, which extended his school record on-base streak to 50-straight games dating back to last season. 
 
The two teams will play the middle two games of their four-game weekend series in a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12:05 p.m. (MT).