DENVER, Colo. - Metro State's Ted Jamison (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain H.S.) tossed a three-hitter in game two of a baseball doubleheader with Colorado Christian on Friday as the Roadrunners dropped game one 9-3, but bounced back to win game two 5-1. Metro State is now 24-19 overall and 15-15 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while CCU is 13-31 overall and 7-23 in the RMAC.
Game 1
Metro State tied a season-high with six errors, spoiling an excellent effort by starter Joel Lockhart (Golden, Colo./Golden H.S.), who pitched eight innings and allowed just one earned run. He scattered seven hits and walked just one batter. The only earned run of the three total that he allowed was a leadoff home run to start the game by Chad Barnhill.
Matt McConnell (Mesa, Ariz./Dobson H.S.) hit a home run for Metro State. Tommy Frikken (Arvada, Colo./Pomona H.S.) had a team-high two hits in three at bats.
Trailing 1-0 on the bottom of the first after Barnhill's home run, McConnell connected on his ninth home run of the season in the bottom of the first to tie the game.
The Roadrunners allowed unearned runs in the fourth and sixth to trail 3-1. Mike Coffey (Highlands Ranch, Colo./ThunderRidge H.S.) led off the bottom of the sixth with a single to center. He came home two batters later on a base hit by Jordan Stouffer (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.). Metro State tied the game at 3-3 on Tyree Abshire (Paonia, Colo./Paonia H.S.)'s double to right-center that scored Stouffer.
The score remained tied until the ninth inning. Metro State went to its bullpen after Lockhart had thrown 105 pitches in eight innings. After reliever Sean Walter got a strikeout to start the ninth, he surrendered another home run by Barnhill to give the Cougars the lead at 4-3. The next two batters reached to force Metro State to hand the ball over to Kyle Orgill. the righthander hit the first batter he faced to load the bases before allowing a two-run single to Daniel Kirschler followed by a three-run home run by Chris Polton to give CCU a 9-3 lead.
The Roadrunners went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.
Game 2
Ted Jamison (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain H.S.) tossed his second complete game of the season to improve his record to 7-2, throwing all seven innings. Chris Redding, Mike Coffey (Highlands Ranch, Colo./ThunderRidge H.S.), Jordan Stouffer (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) and Tyree Abshire (Paonia, Colo./Paonia H.S.) each had two hits to lead the Roadrunners. Abshire hit his team-leading 12th home run of the season.
Metro State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first after Redding singled to lead off the game and scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt McConnell (Mesa, Ariz./Dobson H.S.).
Colorado Christian tied the game in the top of the fourth after a leadoff walk to Chris Polton and an RBI single to center by David McKendrick.
Metro State took the lead right back in the bottom of the inning with nobody out on a two-run home run by Abshire, scoring Stouffer to put the Roadrunners in front 3-1.
The Roadrunners added another in the fifth after one-out back-to-back doubles by Coffey and McConnell and one more in the sixth when Redding brought home Marcel Dominguez (Carlsbad, N.M./Carlsbad H.S.) with a base hit.
Jamison escaped a leadoff single in the sixth and a leadoff walk in the seventh to hold CCU scoreless both innings.
Both teams will meet back at Auraria Field on Saturday at noon for the final two games of the four-game series. For Metro State, it will be its final home games of the season and senior day.
