ST. GEORGE, Utah. — Azusa Pacific baseball was able to split the four-game road series with Dixie State despite falling in an early 5-0 hole in the finale. The Cougars fought back and eventually prevailed in the end winning Saturday afternoon by a score of 11-8. They won the final two games of the series and scored 23 runs combined between the two to help them improve to 5-7 on the season.

"Proud of the way the boys have handled the early adversity this season and in this series," head coach Paul Svagdis said, "I thought we got some consistent outings out of our pitching staff and had quality at-bats for four games."

How it Happened:

In the first two innings, the Trailblazers scored five runs on five hits and two Cougar errors to jump out to an early 5-0 advantage.

The Cougars then chipped away at the deficit in the fourth inning. Senior Nick Estrella, the hottest hitter in the Cougar lineup, sent a two-run home run over the left field fence for his fourth homer of the season making it 5-2.

"Nick (Estrella) did a nice job executing a hitting plan and stayed focus on the process (in the series)," Svagdis added, "As a result of his leadership, I believe other hitters began to follow suit and believe in the process."

In the fifth inning, the Cougars used the home run to their advantage once again. This time it was Tido Robles' turn with a two-run jack to left field putting Azusa Pacific within one, 5-4. The Cougars weren't quite finished though in the inning. Sophomore Will Stroud came to bat with the bases loaded and drove in a run with his first hit of the season to tie the game at 5-5.

Dixie State would respond in the bottom half of the fifth inning, scoring two more runs. The first scored from third on a balk before an RBI double later in the inning put the Trailblazers up 7-5.

Azusa Pacific would not be denied in the game though, as they fought back once again in the sixth inning. After the first two Cougar hitters reached on errors, Robles came through again for the Cougars, this time with a two-RBI double to center field. Robles drove in four runs in two at-bats tying the game in both situations. He would come around to score on a passed ball to give the Cougars their first lead of the game 8-7 before a sacrifice fly from Joseph Kim capped off the four-run top of the sixth giving his team a 9-7 lead.

The Cougars added insurance runs with one run in the seventh and one run in the eighth. Griffen Herrera singled in a run in the seventh before Kim homered for the third time in the series in the eighth to cap off the 11-8 win in style. 

Declan Kearney entered from the bullpen in the bottom of the sixth inning and after allowing a run in the sixth, he shut down the Trailblazers the rest of the way. Kearney punched out five Dixie State batters en route to his first save of the season. 

After winning two straight to finish the road series, the Cougars will now have some time off before they travel to the Aloha state to start PacWest play against Hawai'i Pacific and Hawai'i Hilo at the end of February. 

"A whole new season starts out in Hawai'i," Svagdis said, "So we will work on the things that we need to improve on and build off the things we have been getting better at."
 

Inside the Boxscore:

Offensively, the Cougars had two standouts this week. The firepower and leadership from redshirt junior Joseph Kim and senior captain Nick Estrella helped the Cougars finish the road stand strong.

In five games this week, Kim was 8-for-17 (.471) which included three homers, eight RBI, and three multi-hit games. Kim raised his average from .091 to .321 this week.

In five games this week, Estrella was 10-for-18 (.555) at the dish, which included two homers, eight RBI and four multi-hit games. Estrella is now hitting a team-high .519 and is one of the best Cougar starting pitchers.