THIS WEEK
The University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball team will be traveling to St. George, Utah to take on RMAC foe Dixie State University in a four-game series. The series will kick off on Friday, Mar. 15 at 6 p.m. Saturday, Mar. 16 will feature a double header with the games scheduled for 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The series finale will take place on Sunday, Mar. 17 at 12 p.m.

SCOUTING THE TRAILBLAZERS
The Trailblazers currently have an overall record of 14-4, including a record of 4-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC). Their undefeated record in the RMAC came as a result of sweeping Adams State University this past weekend. In that series, Dixie State scored a total of 68 runs on 68 hits including 22 doubles, five triples and 12 home runs. Their best single game performance of the season came in the series against Adams State by a score of 28-9. In that game, Dixie State tallied 28 hits including nine doubles, one triple and seven home runs. They currently have an overall team batting average of .328 and a conference batting average of .430, both of which rank first in the RMAC. Individually, the Trailblazers are currently being led by junior Jake Engel, freshman Tyson Fisher and sophomore Tyler Hollow. Engel currently has a batting average .391 and leads the team in hits (25), triples (three), home runs (six) and RBI (19). He also ranks fourth in the RMAC in hits and home runs. Fisher has a batting average of .386, is third on the team in hits, home runs and RBI with 22, three and 14 respectively. Hollow is hitting .353 on the season, leads the team in doubles with seven and is second on the team in both hits and RBI with 24 and 16 respectively. Defensively, Jayden Murray (4-1, 2.60 ERA) and Jack Gonzales (3-0, 3.63 ERA) are leading the pitching staff for the Trailblazers. Murray has given up 14 runs (eight earned) on 23 hits, has racked up 31 strikeouts and held opposing batters to a .215 batting average in five starts this season. Gonzales has given up eight runs (seven earned) on 12 hits with 15 strikeouts, while also holing opposing batters to a .190 batting average.

LAST TIME OUT
The Mountain Lions could not have started their RMAC schedule any better as they went 4-0 this weekend, sweeping Colorado Christian University. In those four games, UCCS scored 50 runs on 58 hits including 17 doubles, one triple and seven home runs. The Mountain Lions had 14 different players record a hit in the series and six different players hit a home run. Matt McDermott added to his already impressive season stats as he had 11 hits in the four games, which led the team. Of his 11 eleven hits, two were doubles and one was an inside the park home run. He finished the weekend with nine runs scored, seven RBI and an outrageous .733 batting average. Matthew Clarke had a great weekend as he recorded eight hits of his own, which was second behind McDermott. Clarke tallied three doubles, two home runs, and 11 RBI, all of which led the team. He finished the weekend with a .500 batting average. In terms of the RMAC offensive leaders, both Matt McDermott and Matthew Clarke are leading the RMAC in overall batting average (both hitting .492 on the season) and hits (32 for McDermott, 31 for Clarke) for players who have at least two plate appearances per game and have played in 75 percent of the games this season.

Matt Berg had good series as well, going 7-11 at the plate with two doubles and a home run, finishing the weekend with a .636 batting average. Jake Anderson played the part of a hero this weekend as he hit a clutch bases-clearing triple late in the first game on Saturday that would prove to be the winning hit. He finished the weekend with a .375 batting average which featured six hits, including that clutch triple and his first home run of the year, which just happened to be a grand slam, and 10 RBI. Evan Richards and Cody Norton both had six hits as well this weekend, with Richards recording his seventh home run on the year (second in the RMAC) and Norton tallying three doubles and four RBI. Tyler Matheny also played the part of a hero on Saturday, as he hit a pinch-hit walk-off double in extra-innings to give the Mountain Lions the win in the second game of the double header. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend for UCCS offensively.

Defensively, UCCS had three pitchers pick up their first wins of the season against Colorado Christian: Jon Sotto, Christian Manmano and Jonathan Cowles. Sotto (1-1) and Manmano (1-0) picked up their wins in relief efforts of Colin Cicere and Joe Slocum, who also pitched well this weekend. Cowles (1-4) earned his first win of the year in the series opener on Friday as he went seven innings and gave up three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. He would finish his start with a 3.86 ERA. The best pitching performance of the weekend goes to Daniel Silva, as he improved his record to 3-0 on the season. In his start, Silva went seven innings and gave up only one run on five hits with three strikeouts, earning him an impressive 1.29 ERA.

WEATHER FORECAST
The forecast for this weekend in St. George, Utah shows excellent conditions for baseball. The highs for Friday, Saturday and Sunday are projected to be 59, 65 and 67 degrees respectively with no chance of precipitation. Winds are only expected to gust as high as eight miles per hour.

UP NEXT
UCCS will play host to RMAC rival and #2 ranked Colorado Mesa University Mavericks next weekend beginning Friday, Mar. 22 at 3 p.m. The Saturday, Mar. 23 double header will feature games at 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. The series finale will take place on Sunday, Mar. 24 at 12 p.m.