(Stephenville, Texas - May 7, 2026) - The Trailblazers saw their WAC Tournament run come to an end on Thursday night falling 14-5 in five innings to No. 5 seed Southern Utah at the Tarleton Softball Complex.
With the loss, Utah Tech (19-34) closes out their 2026 campaign as the Trailblazers won at least 19 games for the fifth time in their six years in Division I and earned their second-ever WAC Tournament win on Wednesday night against No. 3 seed UT Arlington.
The Trailblazers totaled five hits in the contest with doubles from
Brooklyn Dowdle and
Summer Sanderson along with singles by seniors
Sadie Phillips,
Lakaiya-Braessia Kahahawai-Kekona and
Baylee Howley.
Dowdle, who came into the contest with one RBI on the season, tripled that total with a bases-loaded RBI double in the third inning as her three RBIs tied her single game career high.
In the circle,
Lexie Wilson made her 11th start of the season, but was knocked out from the game after 0.2 innings.
Delaney Wright followed with 2.2 innings of work and was rounded out by
Cemryn Pickett (0.2 innings) and
Riley Price (1.0 innings).
How It Happened
Southern Utah (21-29) jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first inning scoring on a sacrifice fly, a two-run RBI double along with a fielding error by the Trailblazers.
The Thunderbirds tacked on a two-run home run and pushed across three more runs in the second to extend their lead to 9-0.
The Trailblazers got the on scoreboard in the bottom of the second after
Drew McKown reached base on a SUU fielding error.
SUU answered back with a pair of runs in the third to push their lead to 11-1, but the Trailblazers responded with four runs in the bottom of the frame.
Howley got the scoring started with an RBI single through the right side to drive in
Kinley Pappas.
After a walk by
Kennedy Embrey loaded the bases, Dowdle drove home all three Trailblazers on base with an RBI double to left center to cut SUU's lead to 11-5.
The Thunderbirds tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning scoring on an RBI walk and a pair of RBI groundouts to win by a final score of 14-5.
2026 Season Notables
- Top 10 Season Team Stats
- Triples (19) - Tied for 1st
- Sacrifice Flies (17) - T9th
- Individual Top 10 Season Marks
- Kinley Pappas
- Doubles (21) - 2nd
- Total Bases (145) - T2nd
- Slugging Percentage (.858) - 3rd
- Batting Average (.450) - 4th
- Triples (6) - T4th
- Home Runs (12) - T5th
- RBI (54) - 6th
- Hits (76) - T7th
- Runs (52) - 9th
- Sauren Garton
- Appearances (31) - T7th
- Starts (26) - T6th
- Career Top 10 Marks
