DENVER—The Metropolitan State University of Denver baseball team beat Sioux Falls 10-4 in Saturday's game to improve to 3-6 on the season with Sioux Falls falling to 5-5. MSU Denver is now 2-0 in the series against Sioux Falls.
Senior lefty
Cameron Stroup (Arvada, Colo./Arvada West H.S.) notched his first start of the season for the Roadrunners, earning his first win after pitching six innings of three-run baseball with one strikeout and only one walk. Prior to Saturday's start Stroup had three brilliant scoreless appearances for MSU Denver.
The Roadrunners scored early and often en route to their 10 run victory over the Cougars. On the very first pitch of the game Junior leadoff hitter
Jake Thurston (Centennial, Colo./Grandview H.S.) took a fastball to the helmet but quickly brushed it off as he jogged down to first base. Three at-bats later sophomore
Hunter Donaldson (Fort Collins, Colo./Fossil Ridge H.S.) singled to score Thurston and put MSU Denver on the board.
The Roadrunners scored again in the second inning when senior
Nick Comito (Lakewood, Colo./Mullen H.S.) singled to left field to score junior
Marcus Bean (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.). In the third inning junior
Andrew Paust (Parker, Colo./Ponderosa H.S.) belted a solo homer over the left-center field wall to put the Roadrunners up 3-0. That was Paust's third homerun of the season.
The Cougars scored one run in the fourth inning and then two more in the top of the sixth to tie the game up at 3-3.
In the bottom of the sixth inning the Roadrunners quickly regained the lead by scoring five runs to go up 8-3. The rally started when Junior
Jake Ekman (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge H.S.) singled up the middle to plate Donaldson from second. Bean and Comito also reached safely to load the bases for Thurston who hit a grand slam to clear the bases and put MSU Denver up by five.
Paust singled in the bottom of the seventh to score sophomore
Cale O'Donnell (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) and make it a 9-3 ballgame. The Cougars homered in the eighth to score their fourth and final run, which would prove to be too little too late. Junior
Reilly Mau (Longmont, Colo./Longmont H.S.) tripled in the bottom of the eighth to score Thurston to seal MSU Denver's 10-4 victory.
The Roadrunners will finish their three-game series against Sioux Falls Sunday at noon at the Regency Athletic Complex.
