DENVER, Colo. - The Metro State baseball team swept Colorado Christian in a doubleheader on Saturday, winning 5-3 and 3-2 over the Cougars at Auraria Field in Denver.  The wins give the Roadrunners and overall record of 26-19 and 17-15 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while CCU dropped to 13-33 overall and 7-25 in the RMAC.

Game 1

Metro State used a strong outing by Ross MacDonald to go on to the victory in the first game.  MacDonald allowed just three runs in 8.2 innings.  He struck out six and walked two.  Chris Redding and Dakota Nahm (Englewood, Colo./Thomas Jefferson H.S.) each had two hits for the Roadrunners.

Metro State allowed a run in the first inning, MacDonald held the Cougars scoreless over the next four innings.  Meanwhile, Metro State put together a four-run fourth inning to take a 4-1 lead.  Matt McConnell (Mesa, Ariz./Dobson H.S.) led off with a walk and scored when Jordan Stouffer (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) followed with a double to left-center.  Following a walk to Tyree Abshire (Paonia, Colo./Paonia H.S.) and a sacrifice bunt by Nahm, Brennan Brown (Thornton, Colo./Legacy H.S.) ripped an RBI double to give the Roadrunners the lead.  Tommy Frikken (Arvada, Colo./Pomona H.S.) then singled home Abshire and Brown scored on a sacrifice fly by Marcel Dominguez (Carlsbad, N.M./Carlsbad H.S.).

The Cougars cut the lead to 4-3 with a run in the fifth and another in the seventh.  Metro State added an insurance run in the eighth after a leadoff double by Mike Coffey (Highlands Ranch, Colo./ThunderRidge H.S.) and a sacrifice fly by Stouffer.

MacDonald ran into trouble in the ninth, but the Roadrunners escaped without allowing a run.  After allowing back-to-back singles to start the inning, MacDonald caught the lead runner leaving early on a stolen base attempt of third base for the first out.  After a fielder's choice, MacDonald allowed a walk and Metro State called upon Ryan Eccles (Cypress, Calif./Mater Dei H.s.) to close the game.  Eccles got Doug Pavlich to pop up to second baseman Frikken to end the game.

Game 2

Steven Green (Denver, Colo./Legacy H.S.) allowed just five hits and two runs in 5.2 innings for the Roadrunners, but Ryan Eccles (Cypress, Calif./Mater Dei H.s.) pitched 1.1 perfect innings after entering in a tie game to earn the win.  Eccles struck out two and did not allow a baserunner.

Chris Redding and Tyree Abshire (Paonia, Colo./Paonia H.S.) each had two hits.  Abshire also hit his team-leading 13th home run of the season and Dakota Nahm (Englewood, Colo./Thomas Jefferson H.S.) also added a home run.  Both Abshire and Nahm were playing their final home games of their careers.

Green allowed a run in the first inning, but then settled down to pitch four consecutive scoreless innings.

Metro State tied the game in the second with a solo homer to left field by Nahm and took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third with an unearned run.

CCU got to Green in the sixth inning with back-to-back singles to lead off the inning.  After a pickoff, Green surrendered a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2.  He walked the next batter and gave way to Eccles who got a strikeout to end the threat.

Abshire blasted a one-out home run to right field to put the Roadrunners ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth.  Eccles pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to end the game.

Metro State will play at New Mexico Highlands next weekend for a four-game series to wrap up the regular season.