Kyle McDaniel pounded out four hits, while sophomore hurler
Cade Montgomery fired five solid innings, as Utah Tech baseball opened the 2025 season with a 7-5 victory over Northern Colorado on Friday afternoon at Bruce Hurst Field.
The Trailblazers (1-0) led 6-0 after four innings complete, striking for single runs in each of the first two innings before breaking the game open with three runs in the third.
After an
Aaron Perez one-out walk, freshman designated hitter
Finnegan Stewart pounced on the first pitch he saw from Bear starter Gienger Murphy (L, 0-1) and drove well over the left field wall for his first collegiate home run.
McDaniel followed that up one pitch later with a triple off the wall in right center, then scampered home on a
Levi Randall suicide squeeze bunt.
Utah Tech extended to a six-run advantage in the fourth on a two-out
Hunter Katschke single, which chased
Petey Soto Jr. home from third after he drew a walk to lead off the frame.
The early run support bolstered a strong start from Montgomery (W, 1-0), who struck out two and scattered six hits and an unearned run over his five innings of work en route to his first collegiate win.
Montgomery also got help from the Trailblazer defense, which turned two of its three double plays on the day in the first three innings, and played nine innings of errorless baseball on the day.
Northern Colorado (0-1) finally cracked the scoreboard with a run in the fifth. The Bears then went on to plate single runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to cut the Blazer lead in half at 6-3.
Utah Tech countered with a big insurance run in the eighth on a two-out Soto Jr. infield single that scored McDaniel, who doubled down the line in right field to lead off the inning.
Things did get interesting in the ninth as the Bears loaded the bases with no outs to bring the potential tying run to the plate.
Blazer third baseman
Ryan Kroepel (S, 1) was then called upon to take the mound. The sophomore limited the Bears to only two runs, and got UNCO infielder Brandon Sanchez to line out to Soto Jr. to end the game.
Utah Tech rapped out 11 hits on Friday with five extra-base hits. Soto Jr. finished with two hits and two RBI, while Katschke collected two hits to go with his RBI.
Friday's victory was Utah Tech's first Opening Day win in its brief NCAA Division I era. The last Blazer season debut victory came during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season (14-7 at Cal State San Marcos; 1/31/20), which was the program's last Division II campaign.
The two teams will play the middle two games of their four-game weekend series in a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 12:05 p.m.
