Utah Tech University Athletics

Utah Tech could not recover from an early Ute scoring outburst as the Trailblazers closed the road portion of their 2026 schedule on the wrong end of a 16-9 decision at in-state rival Utah on Tuesday afternoon at Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark.
 
The Trailblazers (30-22/7-8 WAC) found themselves in a deep hole after two innings of play after Utah sent 11 batters the plate as part of a seven-run first inning rally. The Utes chased that with three more runs in the home second to open up a commanding 10-0 lead.
 
Utah Tech managed to get off the deck in the third, striking for three runs of its own to cut the deficit to 10-3.
 
Petey Soto Jr. led off the stanza with his fifth home run of the season, a 413-foot blast over the left center field wall. 
 
Then after both Kyle McDaniel and Hudson Manwaring both reached, Ryan Kroepel laced an opposite field double to left center gap to chase home McDaniel with the Blazers' second run.
 
Miller Durham followed that with a deep fly out to the base of the wall in center field, which scored Manwaring from third base. 
 
The Blazers tacked on another run in the fifth on a two-out Finnegan Stewart run-scoring single to made it a 10-4 game. Utah Tech would later load the bases in the stanza, but were turned away by the Ute bullpen. 
 
Utah (25-22) clapped back with a run on the home fifth, only to see Utah Tech twirl some more two-out magic in the sixth. Manwaring got the rally started with a lined single to left field to draw his side to within six runs.
 
Then with the bases loaded, Stewart popped up to Ute second baseman Cal Miller, who could not hold on to the catch, which allowed two runs to score. Miller then tried to throw out Cade Nalder at third base on the play, but the throw sailed into left field allowing Nalder to score on the throwing error that pulled the Blazers to within three at 11-8.
 
The Blazers kept the vibe going in the seventh when Manwaring rapped a one-out single to center trim the deficit to 11-9.
 
Unfortunately that would be as close at Utah Tech would get as the Utes countered with one run after the stretch, and four more in the eighth, to put the game away. 
 
Utah Tech finished with 12 hits on the day, led by Manwaring, who went 4-for-5 with two RBI. For Manwaring, who was named WAC Player of the Week on Monday, it was his third-straight, four-hit game overall and he extended his hit streak to a season-high eight games.
 
Meanwhile Durham and Stewart each collected two hits and drove in one run apiece. In addition, Durham managed to extend his on-base streak to 24-straight games, while Kroepel's third-inning double stretched his career long on-base streak to 36-straight games. Kroepel also drew his 43rd walk of the season, which pulled him into a tie with former Blazer Yuto Kata (2012) atop Utah Tech's single-season walks list. As a team, Utah Tech drew six walks on Tuesday, which brought the team's single season total to 295, which broke the program's previous school record total of 294 set in 2019. 
 
Utah Tech returns home to host Abilene Christian in a critical three-game series this Thursday-through-Saturday at Bruce Hurst Field.