WICHITA, Kan. – Corrigan Bartlett provided the go-ahead home run to lift the Wichita State University baseball team to a 2-1 victory over the Dixie State (Utah) Trailblazers in the opening game of a three-game series Friday, March 5, at Eck Stadium, Home of Tyler Field.
 
Wichita State (4-3) and Dixie State (0-5) are scheduled to play game two of the series at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 6.
 
Fans that attend the Shocker men's basketball game against South Florida at noon at Charles Koch Arena and present their ticket stub from the game at the Eck Stadium gate will receive FREE admission to Saturday's contest.
 
With the game tied, 1-1, entering the bottom of the seventh-inning, Bartlett stepped to the plate and hit a line drive over the left-center wall on the first pitch he saw, breaking the stalemate and putting WSU in front, 2-1. It was Bartlett's second home run of the season.
 
The Trailblazers threatened to tie the game twice in the final two innings, but each time Wichita State made the key play to maintain the lead.
 
In the top of the eighth, Dixie State had runners on first and second with no outs, but WSU reliever Aaron Haase fielded a bunt and threw out a runner at third for the first out, before coaxing a 5-4-3 double-play to get out of the inning unscathed.
 
The Trailblazers' Lane Pritchard hit a lead-off double in the top of the ninth, but shortstop Andrew Stewart corralled a groundball that deflected off the rosin bag on the pitcher's mound and fired it to first for the opening out, prior to a Haase strikeout and grounder to second baseman Jack Sigrist, sealing the WSU victory.
 
Bartlett went 2-for-3 and homered, while Paxton Wallace collected an RBI, leading the Shockers at the plate.
 
Wichita State reliever Tommy Barnhouse (1-0) earned the win on the mound after tossing two-thirds of an inning with a strikeout and walk, while Haase picked up his second consecutive safe with scoreless eighth and ninth innings. WSU starter Liam Eddy threw 6 1/3 strong innings, allowing one unearned run on six hits with eight strikeouts and a pair of walks.
 
Kaden Hollow posted two hits and Pritchard doubled, pacing Dixie State offensively.
 
DSU starter Jimmy Borzone (0-1) suffered the loss after giving up two earned runs on five hits with nine strikeouts and no walks in 7 2/3 innings.