Utah Tech clinched its final Western Athletic Conference series victory on the strength of a 7-4 triumph over visiting Abilene Christian on Friday night at Bruce Hurst Field.
Senior righthander
Dakoda West (ND) got the Trailblazers off to a great start, retiring the first eight Wildcats he faced with three strikeouts before ACU nine-hole hitter Braden Regala reached on a bunt single with two outs in the third.
ACU (25-28/8-9 WAC) wound up pushing across the game's first run two batters later en route to its first lead of the series.
The Trailblazer offense picked up its starter in the home third, scoring a pair of runs of its own to wrestle the lead away at 2-1.
Kyle McDaniel continued his torrid hitting in the series as he connected for his seventh home run of the season, a solo blast over the right centerfield wall with one out to tie the game at 1-1.
Utah Tech (33-22/9-8 WAC) then took the lead thanks to a two-out
Miller Durham RBI-single.
West went on to toss a scoreless fourth, while the Blazers stretched their lead to 3-1 in the fourth when Wildcat reliever Baron Mannis balked in
Andrew Pyle from third base.
West was lifted for the bullpen to begin the fifth, and reliever
Brandon Kosel (W, 3-3) picked up right where the senior left off as he fanned four and surrendered one earned run (two total) and three hits over the next three innings.
With the game tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the Trailblazers took the lead for good when reigning WAC Player of the Week
Hudson Manwaring (1) belted a towering three-run homer to left field to put Utah Tech back on top at 6-3.
Utah Tech tacked on another run in the seventh before turning to closer
Ryan Kroepel in the eighth. The junior hurler struck out three over the final two innings to salt away the series victory.
McDaniel, who rapped out a career-high five hits in Thursday's night series-opening win, collected three more safeties and scored two runs out of the lead-off spot as Utah Tech finished with 10 hits on the night.
Meanwhile Durham tallied two hits and drove in his fifth run of the series on his third-inning single.
Utah Tech will play for a three-game series sweep on Senior Day Saturday beginning at 12:05 p.m. (MT).
