Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
RMAC Tournament Bracket (PDF)
KEARNEY, Neb. - Jennessa Tesone (Longmont, Colo./Niwot H.S.) blasted her sixth home run of the weekend and second of the game in the sixth inning of game two to hand Metro State its third consecutive Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference regular season title on Sunday. The Roadrunners made things difficult, dropping game one 5-4 at Nebraska-Kearney on Sunday, but rebounded with the 10-7 victory in game two behind Tesone's homer. Metro State finishes the regular season 33-14 overall and 28-11 in the RMAC, while UNK's season ends at 16-29 and 16-21.
Metro State finished as co-champions with Colorado Mines, which finished 33-20 and 28-11. The Roadrunners earned the tiebreaker between the two schools and will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming RMAC Tournament in Golden, Colo.
Game One
The opening game on Sunday was ugly for the Roadrunners as their bats could not get going after run-ruling Nebraska-Kearney twice on Saturday. Caitlin Jenks (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley H.S.) provided a boost with a two-run home run in the second inning, but the Lopers responded with three in the bottom of the third.
Metro State again took a 4-3 lead on a two-out, two-run single by Molly Clark (Lakewood, Colo./Lakewood H.S.) in the sixth inning, but the Roadrunners gave the lead right back on a two-run home run by Sarah Rome with two outs in the bottom of the inning. Metro State stranded runners on first and second in the top of the seventh.
Julia Diehl (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge H.S.) suffered the loss, allowing three earned runs and striking out eight.
Tesone continued her torried weekend, going 2-for-3. Amber Roundtree (Lakewood, Colo./Faith Christian H.S.) also had two hits.
Game Two
The offense got things going on the right foot in game two with three in the top of the first. Roundtree led off the game with a home run to center. Clark had another two-run single with two outs as the Lopers went to their bullpen in the first inning.
UNK scored two in the bottom of the first and two in the second to take a 4-3 lead. Tesone's first home run of the game and fifth of the weekend tied the game in the fourth.
Kearney took the lead with two more in the fourth. Lauren Hainlen (Parker, Colo./Chaparral H.S.) cut the lead in half with a solo home run in the fifth.
The Roadrunners broke out for five runs in the sixth. Roundtree's single up the middle scored Sam Talmich (Colorado Springs/Rampart H.S.), who opened the inning with a base hit, to tie the game. Tesone then put Metro State in front 9-6 with a three-run blast to score Danni Hedstrom (Fort Collins, Colo./Fort Collins H.S.) and Roundtree. Hainlen later had an RBI double for an insurance run.
The Lopers stranded a leadoff single in the sixth. They scored one in the seventh after a leadoff double and single started the inning, but Jenks retired the final three batters to end the game.
She allowed four earned runs in seven innings.
Hainlen had her second 4-for-4 game this weekend and Roundtree added three hits and Tesone had two.
Metro State will face UC-Colorado Springs in the first round of the RMAC Tournament beginning on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in Golden, Colo.
