(Riverside, Calif. - Feb. 7, 2026) - The Trailblazers took an early 4-1 lead on Saturday afternoon at UC Riverside, but fell to the Highlanders, 11-6 at Amy S. Harrison Family Field.
Utah Tech (0-3) outhit UC Riverside (1-2), 10-8 on the afternoon, and were led by three Trailblazers notching multi-hit games.
Senior
Lakaiya-Braessia Kahahawai-Kekona led the way with a 3-for-4 performance from the plate coming a triple shy of the cycle and added two RBI and scored a pair of runs.
Fellow senior
Baylee Howley notched a double and home run and joined Kahahawai-Kekona in adding two RBI and two runs scored.
Freshman
Lauren Jones added a pair of singles and
Drew McKown,
Sadie Phillips &
Jayda Gleave each tallied one single apiece.
In the circle, four different pitchers saw action with
Sauren Garton making her second start of the weekend tossing 3.1 innings before giving way to
Delaney Wright (0.1 innings),
Cemryn Pickett (1.0) and
Lexie Wilson (1.1).
How It Happened
Racing out to a quick 3-0 lead with a big top of the first, the Trailblazers took advantage of a fielding error by the Highlanders to get
Kennedy Embrey on base and Kahahawai-Kekona followed with an RBI double to left field. Two batters later, Howley followed with her first home run of the season.
A scoreless first two innings by Garton in the circle saw her face the minimum six batters, but the Highlanders broke through on the scoreboard in the third with a run on a fielder's choice.
UT pushed their lead to 4-1 in the fourth on an RBI single to center by McKown, but UCR had a quick response with a seven-run bottom half of the inning to take an 8-4 lead.
Looking to fight back, the Trailblazers split the deficit in half with a pair of runs in the fifth getting a solo home run by Kahahawai-Kekona and an RBI single to center by Jones.
UCR responded with three more runs to extend their lead to 11-6 through five and after the Trailblazers loaded the bases in the sixth, Howley grounded out to end the scoring threat.
UT went down in order in the seventh.
Up Next
The Trailblazers wrap up Opening Weekend on Sunday with a contest at Loyola Marymount (2-1) at 11 a.m. MT and against UC Santa Barbara (0-4) at 1:30 p.m. MT.
