ALAMOSA, Colo – Adams State Baseball had ita first game at home for the 2019 season hosting the Dixie State Trailblazers at the ASU Baseball Field. the Grizzlies battled early on but a late Trailblazers rally gave the visitors a 15-6 series opening win.
The Grizzlies (3-12) were looking to continue the success they saw two weeks ago against UT Permian Basin. Dixie State (11-4) was looking to bounce back after dropping two of three games to Colorado Mesa University.
The two teams stayed close though the first five innings with Adams State up 4-3 after five innings. The sixth inning saw the Trailblazers score six runs to take a lead they did not relinquish. They went on to score five more in the eighth inning and one more run in the ninth. The Grizzlies were only able to score two runs in the eighth which was not nearly enough to take the lead as the Trailblazers held on for a nine-run road win.
David Maldonado for the Grizzlies and Mason Foltz for the Trailblazers started the game strong, with no scoring and only three hits through the first two innings. After a quick top of the third inning the top of the order was up for the Grizzlies,
Jake Angelopulos struck out and
Erik Hildebrandt struck out swinging to start the inning.
Nico Nintze was up next and hit a towering shot to right field for the first run of the game and second home run of the season. As soon as he crossed the plate,
Jared Gay stepped into the box and sent the baseball over the left field fence for back to back home runs and increasing the Grizzlies lead to two.
The top of the fifth saw the bats come alive for the Trailblazers. The first batter of the inning, Alec Flemetakis hit a home run to center field for the first run of the game for the Trailblazers. Tyler Hollow followed that up two batters later with a homerun of his own driving in the second run of the inning.
After two more hitters reached base, Maldonado was taken out of the game in favor of bringing in
Dalton Carleo to pitch. The first batter was Kaid Urban who singled through the left side to bring in the third run of the inning for the Trailblazers. Carleo settled down and got out of the inning after giving up the run.
Jared Gay was the third batter of the bottom of the fifth inning and with Hildebrandt on second base he went deep for the second time in the game and the second time this season, driving in two more runs for the Grizzlies and retaking the lead 4-3.
The next inning saw the Trailblazers pull ahead as a run scored off of a Tyler Hollow single, Jake Engel followed that up with a three run triple down the right field line. Carleo was taken out of the game and
Dominic Lomeli came into pitch for the Grizzlies. He walked the first batter he faced bringing in the eighth run of the game for the Trailblazers. After getting a strikeout, Lomeli then committed a balk to bring in the ninth run of the game.
After a quick seventh inning the Trailblazers got the offense in the top of the eighth, Kaid Urban singled to center, Braxton Ipson hit a three run homerun to center field to bring in four more runs for Dixie State. The last run of the inning came courtesy of Tanner Harper who reached on a fielding error by the third baseman.
The bottom of the eighth started slow as the Grizzlies got two quick outs while also getting to runners into scoring position, with Hildebrandt at bat, he smoked a groundball at the third baseman who wasn't able to field the ball, and off that error two runners scored bringing the score to 14-6 in favor of the Trailblazers.
The Trailblazers scored one more run in the top of the ninth inning off a single by Wyatt Branch to increase the lead to 15-6 which ended up being the final score.
The top hitters for the Grizzlies were
Jared Gay who had two hits, both of which were home runs, and had three RBI.
Nico Nintze also had a homerun and an RBI to lead the offense.
David Maldonado threw 4.2 innings with three strikeouts.
Chance Strand threw well in relief with four strikeouts in only two innings pitched to end the game.
For the Trailblazers on offense, Tyler Hollow had four hits with two RBI, Kaid Urban also had three hits and two RBI. Braxton Ipson only had one hit but made it count with three RBI off his homerun.
On the mound for the Trailblazers Tevita Gerber threw 2.2 innings in the middle of the game to be able to secure the win, getting three strikeouts and only allowing three hits as well. Gerber moved to 1-0 on the season for the Trailblazers while Carleo fell to (0-2) for the Grizzlies.
The series picks back up Saturday morning with the two team set to play a doubleheader. Game one first pitch is set for 11 a.m.
