Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Photo Gallery

SILVER CITY, N.M. - The fourth-ranked Metro State softball team swept Western New Mexico on the road, winning 14-2 in five innings and 6-3 in Silver City, N.M.  The Mustangs entered the day in first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference West Division and the Roadrunners are still atop the East Division.  Metro State improved to 30-3 overall and 27-2 in the RMAC, while WNMU fell to 22-17 overall and 18-9 in the RMAC.

Game One
Metro State scored 13 runs in the third inning, the second-most in an inning in school history to carry the blowout victory.  The Roadrunners took a 1-0 lead after the top half of the first with an unearned run, though WNMU took a 2-1 lead after the bottom half, scoring twice with the aid of an error.

After each team went scoreless, Metro State broke the game open in the third with 13 runs on 10 hits and two errors.  Kellie Nishikida (Pearl City, Hawaii/Pearl City H.S.) led off with a line drive home run over the right field fence to tie the game.  After Amber Roundtree (Lakewood, Colo./Faith Christian H.S.) walked, Molly Clark (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood H.S.) struck out for the first out.  But the next 13 batters reached base before the inning ended on a line out that turned into a double play.  Sarah Rusch (Westminster, Colo./Standley Lake H.S.) had two singles in the inning and Tara Mickelson (Wheat Ridge, Colo./Wheat Ridge H.S.) had a single and a two-run home run.  Lauren Hainlen (Parker, Colo./Chaparral H.S.), Roundtree, Rusch and Mickelson all drove in multiple runs as well.

The Roadrunners went scoreless in the final two innings, despite a leadoff double by Clark in the fifth.

While the offense was scoring runs, Christie Robinson (Clinton, Wash./South Whidbey H.S.) was shutting down the Mustang offense, which entered Friday leading the RMAC in batting average and was second behind Metro State in slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs scored, hits, runs batted in and home runs.  After allowing the first three batters of the game to reach base--one on an error--Robinson allowed just one baserunner the rest of the game, retiring the side in order in the second, third and fifth innings with 11 ground ball outs to just three fly ball outs.  She finished the game allowing one earned run in five innings on three hits and no walks with one strikeout.

The school record for runs in an inning is 21, set on April 18, 1990, against Colorado Mines in the second inning.  Metro State has twice scored 12 runs in an inning.  The last time it had 10 or more runs was the second inning at New Mexico Highlands on March 7, 2009, when the Roadrunners put 10 on the board.

Game Two
Brittany Moss (Northglenn, Colo./Northglenn H.S.) allowed just two earned runs as she won her eighth game of the year, throwing all seven innings and striking out five.

Nishikida put Metro State ahead 2-0 in the third with a two-run double that scored Aubree Maul (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) and Clark.  Metro State added two more in the fifth on a two-run homer by Mickelson and Maul and Roundtree hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth to build a 6-0 lead.  Maul's blast to left field was the first of her career.

Kortney Smith hit a two-run home run with nobody out in the bottom of the sixth to cut the lead to 6-2.  The Mustangs used an error to add one more in the inning.  Moss pitched around a one-out single in the seventh to finish the victory.

Nishikida had two of Metro State's nine hits in game two.  Mickelson extended her career-high hitting streak to 10 games and Roundtree is now at 14 straight games with a hit, two shy of her career high.

Metro State will face New Mexico Highlands for two games on Saturday in Silver City.