Every player in the Utah lineup had a hit and six Utes had multi-hit performances as the ballclub combined for 19 total and earned a 12-1 win over Dixie State on Tuesday afternoon at Smith's Ballpark.
The Utes (24-15-1) have now won six of their last seven games, and four straight at home.
Utah returns to action Friday, beginning a three-game Pac-12 series with No. 2-nationally ranked Oregon State at 11 a.m. MT from Smith's Ballpark. Wednesday's previously scheduled game at Utah Valley was canceled last week by mutual agreement of both teams.
Leadoff hitter and right fielder Kai Roberts went 3-for-4 Tuesday night with a career-high five RBI, adding two walks and two runs scored. Three others had three-hit nights, including second baseman Landon Frei (3-for-6), catcher Davis Cop (3-for-5) and shortstop Gabe Singer (3-for-3). It was Singer's first three-hit game as a Ute, and the Salt Lake City native also added two key sacrifice bunts.
The Utes combined for four doubles on the night up and down the lineup, between Roberts, third baseman Chase Anderson, first baseman Alex Baeza and center fielder Carter Booth. Booth scored four times, his most at Utah and tying the most by a Ute for a game this season.
Right-handed pitcher Randon Hostert (3-0) went two innings in the start on a staff day for the Utes arms. Hostert did not walk anyone, struck out three and allowed Dixie State's lone run on four hits.
It was also great to see Ben Kibbe go three up and three down on the mound; Bryson Van Sickle dealt two shutout innings with a pair of strikeouts and Bransen Kuehl worked a scoreless 1.2 innings during the middle of the game. Zac McCleve inherited a bases-loaded situation in the seventh and got out unharmed, before dealing a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Then, Micah Ashman wrapped up the day striking out the side in the ninth.
The Trailblazers began the day's scoring with a single run in the second inning, a tally that came on a two-out infield single. But it was all Utes from there, as Roberts gave the team the lead with a two-run single in the bottom half.
Utah added four more runs in the last of the fourth inning thanks to four hits and two hit batsmen. Booth was hit by a pitch to begin the frame, moved up 90 feet on a well-placed sac bunt from Singer, then Roberts turned the lineup over with an RBI double down the left field line. Anderson would add a RBI double of his own shortly after, bouncing off the center field wall and just feet from clearing the fence. Baeza clubbed Utah's third double of the inning to score both Anderson and Frei—giving the Utes a comfortable 6-1 lead.
Two more runs came across in the fifth inning for Utah, on Frei's RBI single to plate Booth, followed right up with a sac fly from Anderson that brought Roberts home from third base for the 8-1 advantage.
That score remained until the bottom of the eighth, when a four-spot for the Utes wrapped up the scoring for the night. Clarkson led off battling through nine pitches for a walk and later scored on a single by Baeza—the first of five straight base hits for Utah. Baeza, Booth and Cop would later cross the plate and bring the ballgame to its final score. It included a two-run knock for Roberts in the inning.
Clarkson extended his reached base streak to 38 consecutive games.