Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Photo Gallery

DENVER, Colo. - The Metro State baseball team split a doubleheader at home on Saturday, falling 12-11 in game one after allowing 12 runs in the top of the ninth, before rallying for a 6-2 win in game two.  The Roadrunners are now 18-18 overall, including 15-10 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while the Mavericks are 23-13 overall and 19-9 in the RMAC.

Game One
Bradshaw Perry (Aurora, Colo./Cherokee Trail H.S.) threw a gem in the first game, tossing seven shutout innings and allowing just five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.  Perry is now 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in his past three starts, totaling 20 innings and 19 strikeouts.  However, the bullpen has now twice blown leads, costing him a pair of victories during that span.

On Saturday, it was all Metro State through eight innings.  Jacob Trimble (Danville, Ill./Schlarman H.S.) gave the Roadrunners a 1-0 lead in the third with a base hit to center, scoring Tommy Frikken (Arvada, Colo./Pomona H.S.).  Jordan Stouffer (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) led off the fourth with a home run to right field and Metro State added two more in the inning to build a 4-0 lead.

The Roadrunners tacked on another in the fifth after a leadoff single by Chris Redding (Northglenn, Colo./Northglenn H.S.), two in the sixth on a two-run home run by Brennan Brown (Thornton, Colo./Legacy H.S.) and two more in the seventh as David Fox (Lakewood, Colo./Faith Christian H.S.), Stouffer and Zach Krueger (Holyoke, Colo./Holyoke H.S.) opened the inning with three straight doubles.  A leadoff walk was erased on a double play in the eighth to end the string of scoring in five straight innings.

Meanwhile, Perry was in a groove, pitching a 1-2-3 fifth and seventh, and stranding two Mesa State runners in the sixth.  Metro State went to reliever Tyler Hensen (Lakewood, Colo./Bishop Machebeuf H.S.) in the eighth inning after Perry threw 100 pitches through seven innings and Hensen surrendered a leadoff single, but retired the next three batters.

A light drizzle that started during the early innings picked up in intensity and made things difficult for pitchers and fielder's in the eighth and ninth innings as it turned to a steady rainfall.

Joey Widhalm (Parker, Colo./Chaparral H.S.) relieved Hensen to start the ninth and allowed the first five batters to reach.  The shutout was erased on the first batter of the inning as pinch hitter Joe Schmidtbauer hit a towering home run to right.  With two runs in and the bases loaded with nobody out, Tony Weber (Elizabeth, Colo./Elizabeth H.S.) came in to try to clean up the mess.  But Weber was greeted with three errors by his fielders as all four batters he faced reached base and MSC opened the ninth with its first nine batters all reaching. Ross MacDonald (Las Vegas, Nev./Bonanza H.S.) entered with a 9-8 lead, a runner on first, and nobody out.  MacDonald struck out the first batter he faced and got a groundout, putting the tying run on third with two out after a wild pitch. Erik Nordine singled sharply to left to tie the game, but the ball was misplayed by the left fielder, allowing Nordine to advance to second. After the fifth error of the inning that allowed leadoff batter Kevin Becker to reach, MacDonald hit Marty Rover to load the bases.  Lucas Shaw drilled a two-run single up the middle to give the Mavericks an 11-9 lead. Shaw was later caught stealing, but stayed in the rundown long enough to allow Rover to score for a 12-9 lead after a 12-run inning on eight hits and five errors.

The 12-run inning was the largest for a Metro State opponent since the Mavericks put up 12 runs in the first inning against Metro State in Grand Junction, Colo., on Feb. 28.

Evan Claus (Albuquerque, N.M./Eldorado H.S.) and Krueger opened the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back singles.  After a flyout to deep center that allowed Claus to move to third, MSC brought in Taylor Hamilton to try to finish the game.  He hit David Kaplan (Colorado Springs, Colo./Doherty H.S.) with a 3-2 pitch to load the bases with one out. Hamilton then hit Cody Henry (Thornton, Colo./Legacy H.S.) two pitches later, forcing in a run to cut the lead to 12-10. The Mavericks then brought in closer Jack Amidei. After striking out pinch hitter Mike Coffey (Highlands Ranch, Colo./ThunderRidge H.S.), he uncorked a wild pitch to score Krueger.  MSC intentionally walked Redding to face Kevin Coughlin (Golden, Colo./Golden H.S.), who entered the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth. Coughlin was caught looking at a 1-2 curve ball that broke down the middle to end one of the toughest losses in Metro State history.

Krueger led the team with four hits in five at bats, scoring three times.  Fox, Stouffer, Brown and Frikken each had two of the team's 16 hits.

Game Two
After the heartbreaking loss in game one, the Roadrunners started slow, allowing a run in the top of the first and being no-hit for 3 1/3 innings by Chris Shea.  But Metro State woke up in the fourth as Krueger and Brown hit back-to-back one-out singles and Trimble walked to load the bases.  The Roadrunners cut a 2-0 Mesa State lead in half on a sacrifice fly by Eric Lopez (Hayden, Ariz./Hayden H.S.).

A two-out double by Fox was stranded in the fifth, but the clutch hitting finally came back in the sixth.  Pinch runner Marcel Dominguez (Carlsbad, N.M./Carlsbad H.S.) scored the tying run on a line drive single to center by pinch hitter Coffey.  After a strikeout, Redding hit a towering three-run home run to left field.  Perry followed by crushing a pitch over the 50-foot high net beyond the 377-foot sign in left-center, giving Metro State a 6-2 lead.

That was all the run support starter Jake Draeger (Oak Grove, Minn./St. Francis H.S.) needed as he shut down the Mavericks in order in the top of the seventh with a strikeout, a flyout and a weak grounder to second.

Draeger improved to 5-2 on the year with his first career complete game, throwing all seven innings, scattering five hits and striking out five.

The two teams will square off for a non-conference game on Sunday at Metro State at noon.