Utah Tech held off a late Azusa Pacific charge to come away with a series-clinching 9-8 victory in the rubber game of its three-game weekend set on Sunday afternoon at Bruce Hurst Field.
 
The Trailblazers (22-13/2-1 WAC) found themselves facing a 3-1 fifth inning deficit after APU struck for a first inning run, and led off both the fourth and fifth frames with solo home runs.
 
Utah Tech, which stranded seven base runners over its first four offensive frames, got on the scoreboard in the home third thanks to a Miller Durham RBI-single.
 
The Blazers wrestled the lead away in the home fifth with three runs to jump out to a 4-3 advantage. Two of those tallies came off the bat of Durham, who blasted his team-leading sixth homer of the year, a two-run opposite field shot over the wall in left center.
 
Ty Johnsen promptly followed with a single to left field, and the senior catcher was quickly chased home by a Cooper Smith opposite field triple down the left field line.
 
Utah Tech tacked on another run in the sixth, but the Cougars (23-23) clawed back with two runs in seventh, thanks in large part to two Trailblazer errors, to even the game at 5-5.
 
Utah Tech quickly reclaimed its two-run lead at 7-5 after the stretch with a Petey Soto Jr. RBI-single and a Mays Madsen sacrifice flyout.
 
APU cut that lead in half with another run an inning later, but the Trailblazers answered with two big insurance runs, both of which were scored on a towering Finnegan Stewart homer over the wall in left, to stretch the advantage to 9-6. 
 
And those two runs proved to key as the Cougars mounted a furious ninth-inning rally, scoring twice and had the tying and go-ahead runs on base with only one out. 
 
However Blazer closer Ryan Kroepel (S, 8), who came on to pitch in the eighth inning after starting the game at third base, induced a fly out and got APU pinch hitter Will Allen to look at strike three to end the game. 
 
Every Trailblazer starter had at least one base hit as Utah Tech rapped out a season-high 18 safeties on the day. 
 
Durham led the way with a Utah Tech career-high four hits and tied a season high with three RBI. In addition, Madsen, Kroepel, Stewart, Hudson Manwaring and Soto Jr. each collected two hits apiece. 
 
Sophomore reliever Talan Kelly (W, 6-0) pitched 1.2 innings of one-run, one-hit relief to earn his staff leading sixth win of the season out of the bullpen. 
 
Junior righthander Brandon Kosel (ND) struck out three and scattered three runs and five hits over five solid innings, but he did not figure in the decision.
 
Meanwhile Kroepel's save, his eighth of the year, moved him into a tie for eighth placed on Utah Tech's single-season saves list. Kroepel, who now has 16 career saves overall, also vaulted into a tie for third place on the program's NCAA-era career saves list.
 
Utah Tech continues the homestand this Tuesday night with a midweek date against UNLV. First pitch at Bruce Hurst Field is set for 6:05 p.m. (MT).