Box Score

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Metro State was eliminated the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference baseball tournament on Friday, falling 5-4 to Nebraska-Kearney in Grand Junction, Colo.  The Roadrunners fell to 29-17 and the Lopers improved to 34-15.  The Roadrunners will find out if they make the NCAA Tournament on Sunday during the selection show on NCAA.com at 8 p.m.

For the second straight game, Zach Krueger (Holyoke, Colo./Holyoke H.S.) led off with a home run for Metro State and David Kaplan (Colorado Springs, Colo./Doherty H.S.) followed with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Evan Claus (Albuquerque, N.M./Eldorado H.S.).  But that was the only lead of the game for the Roadrunners.

UNK responded with three runs in the bottom of the first and two in the second to take a 5-2 lead.

Corey Collins (Littleton, Colo./Chatfield H.S.) replaced starter Zach Cleveland (Golden, Colo./Golden H.S.) in the third inning and threw six shutout innings of relief, striking out five, but the Roadrunners could not complete the comeback.

A bases loaded walk to Jordan Stouffer (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) forced in Krueger in the fifth as Metro State cut the lead to 5-3.  The Roadrunners scored an unearned run in the eighth to cut the lead to one.

Metro State left 10 runners on base, including two in the eighth and one in the ninth.

Kaplan and David Fox (Lakewood, Colo./Faith Christian H.S.) each had two hits to lead Metro State.