TrailBlazer Baseball wins series vs. SAU-Tech

The ASU-Mountain Home TrailBlazer Baseball team won 3 out of 4 games on the weekend over the Rockets of SAU-Tech to notch their first series win of the year. 

After dropping game one of the weekend 6-3, ASU-Mountain Home would rally to win the final 3 games of the series vs. the Rockets pushing their conference record to 5-3 on the year, placing themselves in a three way tie for 3rd on the east side of the region II standings. 

GAME 1: 

SAU-Tech jumped out to a quick lead notching 2 runs in the first and another in the 3rd, ultimately extending their lead to 6-2 after 5 innings and adding an insurance run in the 7th before finishing off the TrailBlazers. ASUMH was lead offensively by JD Hertzog who homered in the 5th inning. 

Game 2: 

What appeared to start as another dissapointing game for the TrailBlazers, down 9-1 in the 4th inning turned on its head ASUMH rallied for 15 runs in the final 5 innings of the ballgame including 11 in the final 3 innings before ultimately puttting away the Rockets for good. Broc Mattox homered twice in both the 6th and 7th innings including a grand slam that would tie the game and complete the TrailBlazer comeback as they would continue to rally to take the lead in the 7th and regain it again in the 8th taking advantage of some miscues by the Rockets pitching staff. Logan Meyer and Rylan Jones both made quality relief appearences in the ballgame to keep SAU-Tech at bay and allow the TrailBlazer offense a chance to get going! 

Game 3: 

A game that saw ASUMH lead by as many as 5 runs through the first 5 innings almost went haywire as SAU-Tech would take the lead in the top of the 7th on a homerun and take a 9-8 lead into the bottom half of the final frame. Two quck outs to start the inning for ASU-Mountain Home before Ryder McClain stepped to the plate and worked a two-out walk turning the TrailBlazer lineup over to JD Hertzog who smacked a 3-1 pitch deep over the left-center field fence to claim victory for ASU-Mountain Home! Jett Hannaford also homered in the ballgame and Matt Byars found a way to be effective through 6.2 innings before giving way to Nick Fincher who earned the win in relief on the mound for the TrailBlazers. 

Game 4: 

Looking to leave little doubt, ASU-Mountain Home started game 4 the way the left off in game 3. Scoring 13 of its 14 runs in the first 3 innings and collecting 11 hits total in the ballgame, the TrailBlazers ran away with a 14-1 run-rule victory to win the series. Ty Watkins, JD Hertzog & Broc Mattox all homered in game 4 and Blayne Cribb threw 5.0 innings of 1 hit, shutout baseball to take the win on the mound for ASU-Mountain Home. 

Head Coach, Landon Hay had the following to say about the series win: "I am incredibly proud of our guys for showing just how good of a ballclub we can be this weekend. They showed toughness, and a refusal to quit multiple times, and after the frustrating start to the season it is great to see us fighting each pitch as we work our way through conference play!"

Next up for the TrailBlazers is a mid-week game vs. Three Rivers College (MO) on Tuesday, March 24th. First Pitch is scheduled for 3:00pm from Lester White Field at Cooper Park. ASU-Mountain Home then hits the road for the first two games of a conference series vs. the Nighthawks of National Park College before returning to Mountain Home on Saturday to complete the series vs. National Park.