Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Game 3 Box Score

Photo Gallery

DENVER, Colo. - The No. 5 Metro State softball team swept Nebraska-Kearney in a tripleheader at home on Sunday, winning 3-1, 6-1 and 14-3 in five innings to extend its winning streak to 12 games.  The Roadrunners improved to 36-3 overall and 33-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while the Lopers dropped to 12-25 and 11-16 in the RMAC.

Game One
Christie Robinson (Clinton, Wash./South Whidbey H.S.) fired a complete game, scattering four hits and allowing one unearned run in seven innings for the win.  She improved to 16-1 overall this year and won her tenth straight game.  In her past nine games, Robinson has an ERA of 0.13 in 52.0 innings.

Aubree Maul (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) and Lauren Hainlen (Parker, Colo./Chaparral H.S.) led off the third inning with back-to-back doubles as the Roadrunners took a 2-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Julia Diehl (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge H.S.).

The Lopers added an unearned run in the top of the fourth as Metro State committed two errors with two outs.  But Jennessa Tesone (Longmont, Colo./Niwot H.S.) crushed a solo home run with one out in the bottom of the inning to give Metro State a two-run lead again.

Robinson continued to get stronger and retired the final seven batters of the game.

Maul led the team with two hits at the plate.

Game Two
Sarah Rusch (Westminster, Colo./Standley Lake H.S.) belted a two-run home run in the first and the Roadrunners never looked back.  Her blast scored Kellie Nishikida (Pearl City, Hawaii/Pearl City H.S.), who reached on a one-out double.

Molly Clark (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood H.S.) led off the second with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hainlen.  Amber Roundtree (Lakewood, Colo./Faith Christian H.S.) hit a double two batters later to score pinch runner Kristen Gertner (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley H.S.) as the Roadrunners jumped out to a 4-0 lead.

UNK scored an unearned run in the third, but Metro State scored two more in the fifth on a two-run blast from Tara Mickelson (Wheat Ridge, Colo./Wheat Ridge H.S.) for the final margin.

Brittany Moss (Northglenn, Colo./Northglenn H.S.) threw all seven innings and allowed just two hits and one unearned run.  She struck out five.

Rusch and Clark led the offense with two hits each.

Game Three
The Lopers jumped out to a two-run lead after the first as pitcher Dani Mowinkel ripped a two-run home run in the top of the first for UNK's first earned runs of the weekend.

Metro State found an answer in the bottom of the second, putting four runs across to lead 4-2.  Maul and Hainlen reached on back-to-back one-out walks before pitcher Julia Diehl (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge H.S.) gave herself the lead with a three-run home run to left.  Nishikida hit a triple with two outs and scored on a single by Rusch for the fourth run of the inning.

Kelsey Smith hit a solo home run with one out in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-3.  But Metro State ended the game with 10 straight runs.

The Roadrunners added four again in the fourth.  Nishikida drove in Roundtree with her second triple of the game and Nishikida scored on a single by Rusch.  Tesone hit a two-run home run to left with two outs to put Metro State in front 8-3.

After Diehl pitched a quick 1-2-3 top of the fifth, Metro State erupted with six runs as the game ended with one out in the inning.  Maul led off by crushing the first pitch of the inning well over the left field fence, forcing Mowinkel from the game.  After reliever Jessie Thomas got a strikeout, Diehl and Nishikida walked around a base hit by Roundtree, loading the bases.  Rusch blooped a single into centerfield to score Diehl to push the score to 10-3.  Mickelson then ripped a grand slam to right-center to end the game.

Rusch and Nishikida each had three hits to lead Metro State.  Maul and Diehl had two each.  Diehl allowed four hits and three runs in five innings to improve to 11-1 this season.  She struck out five.

Metro State will head to Chadron State to wrap up the regular season next weekend.  The Roadrunners will host the RMAC Tournament the following week from May 6-8.