Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Game 1 Video Highlights

Photo Gallery

DENVER - The Metro State baseball team earned a split at home with Nebraska-Kearney on Sunday, winning 19-5 in game one, before falling 12-2 in game two.  The Roadrunners are now 21-11 overall and 17-10 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, while UNK is 22-11 and 18-7.

Game One
Metro State had season highs of 19 runs and 18 hits in the game one blowout.  The Roadrunners scored seven runs in both the second and sixth innings.  Surprisingly, Metro State had just two extra-base hits.

Zach Krueger (Holyoke, Colo./Holyoke H.S.) was 4-for-5 with three runs scored and three runs batted in.  David Kaplan (Colorado Springs, Colo./Doherty H.S.) had three hits and Jordan Stouffer (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.), Evan Claus (Albuquerque, N.M./Eldorado H.S.) and Brennan Brown (Thornton, Colo./Legacy H.S.) each had two.

The Lopers scored twice in the first inning and led 3-1 after the top of the second.  Metro State exploded for a seven spot in the second, using two-run singles by Krueger and Brown and an RBI single by David Fox (Lakewood, Colo./Faith Christian H.S.).  A walk to Claus forced in a run and another scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Danneffel (Las Vegas, Nev./Bonanza H.S.).

A leadoff walk to Fox and a single by Claus pushed the lead to 9-4 after the fourth inning.

After UNK scored one in the top of the sixth, Metro State again put up seven runs.  Kaplan drove in Krueger to start the rally and Claus, Krueger and Kaplan each had RBI singles later in the inning as 12 batters came to the plate.  Stouffer also had a run-scoring double to left that scored Kaplan.

Brown crushed a two-run home run in the seventh that scored Stouffer and Anthony Sylvester (Morrison, Colo./D'Evelyn H.S.) later scored on a single by Mike Coffey (Highlands Ranch, Colo./ThunderRidge H.S.) for the final run of the game.

Corey Collins (Littleton, Colo./Chatfield H.S.) improved to 4-2 this season, allowing four earned runs in seven innings with six strikeouts.  Tyler Leonard (Canon City, Colo./Canon City H.S.) and Joey Widhalm (Parker, Colo./Chaparral H.S.) each pitched a scoreless inning out of the bullpen.

Game Two
The second game was nearly completely opposite of the first.  Metro State scored first with an unearned run in the first.  After UNK took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second, the Roadrunners added another unearned run in the second.  It was all Lopers after that as Nebraska-Kearney scored once in the fourth, six times in the sixth and three times in the seventh.

Zach Cleveland (Golden, Colo./Golden H.S.) took the loss, allowing two earned runs in five innings.  He struck out seven.  The bullpen allowed Cleveland's inherited runner to score and gave up eight runs in just two innings.

Metro State managed just two hits and two unearned runs off UNK pitcher Mike Nowak, who pitched the first six innings.

Metro State will host Mesa State for a four-game series Thursday-Saturday.  Thursday's game begins at 3:30 p.m.