Denver- The Metropolitan State University of Denver baseball team split its games Sunday, February 26 against Sioux Fall, falling 7-4 in the first game in extra innings, and gaining a 6-4 win in the second game. The Roadrunners are now 4-6 overall and the Cougars are 1-4 overall.
 
Junior Javi Vega (Chula Vista, Calif./Castle Park H.S.) started at pitcher for the Roadrunners to keep the Cougars scoreless through the first inning.
 
Sioux Falls made it on the board in the second inning off a homer to left center from Crow. The Cougars ended the inning with two hits and one run and two left on base.
 
The Roadrunner answered back in the bottom of the third scoring two runs after a single from senior Jake Ekman (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge H.S.) to put him on base. Junior Cale O'Donnell (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) followed by hitting a triple to right center sending Ekman home for the run. Junior Hunter Donaldson (Fort Collins, Colo./Fossil Ridge H.S.) kept the momentum for the Roadrunners hitting a single to left field for Donaldson to score the second run of the inning giving the edge to MSU Denver 2-1.
 
Both sides were scoreless through the fourth and fifth inning, with the Cougars tying the game back up at two in the top of the sixth.
 
The seventh inning was scoreless with zero hits for both sides.
 
Sioux Falls stole the lead in the top of the eighth with three hits scoring two runs with two single RBI's from Crow and Rehwaldt.
 
With the score 4-2 in favor of the Cougars going into the bottom of the eighth inning. The Roadrunners answered back scoring two runs of their own. The first run coming from O'Donnel stealing home, with Donaldson stealing second on the same play.  The second run for MSU Denver came off a double from Bean sending Donaldson home for the tying run.
 
With both teams unable to take the game in the ninth the game was sent into extra innings with the Cougars capitalizing in the 11^th inning scoring three runs off three hits to take the lead 7-4.
 
The Roadrunners were unable to make the comeback in the bottom of the 11^th, allowing the Cougars to gain the extra inning win 7-4.
 
In the second game of the day sophomore Hunter Hogoboom (Arvada, Colo./Pomona H.S.) started on the mound for his first start of the season for the Roadrunners keeping the Cougars scoreless in the first two innings.
 
The Cougars scored the first run of the game in the top of the third after a single up the middle scored a run for Sioux Falls to go up 1-0.
 
The Roadrunners answered back by having a solid bottom of the third, scoring four runs off three hits. For the first run of the inning O'Donnell hit his second triple of the day scoring junior Sean Kennedy (Aurora, Colo./Grandview High School) after Kennedy reached base on a Cougar error. Donaldson then followed hitting a single through the left side to score O'Donnell and to tie the game at 2 a piece.  The Roadrunners would go on to score two more runs in the third, Donaldson scoring off an error and sophomore Adam Tulley (Allenspark, Colo./Estes Park High School) scoring off a single RBI from senior Nick McCasky (Golden, Colo./Ralston Valley H.S.).
 
MSU Denver continued the scoring in the fourth following a triple from Ekman and Kennedy trailing with a single RBI to score Ekman and put the Roadrunners up 5-1 going into the top of the fifth.
 
Junior Jared Roley (Littleton, Colo./Heritage H.S.) entered the game in the top of the sixth. The Cougars were able to cut the lead, scoring one run in the inning to make the score 5-3 in favor of the Roadrunners. However the Roadrunner answered back scoring a run of their own in the bottom of the sixth with Kennedy hitting a sac fly to score Senior Jake Thurston (Centennial, Colo./Grandview H.S.), putting MSU Denver up 6-2.
 
With Senior Derek Stimpson (Colorado Springs/Doherty H.S.) and Junior Josh Moore (Grand Junction, Colo./Grand Junction H.S.) entering the game in the top of the seventh the Roadrunners were able to hold on to the win, with the final score ending 6-4 with MSU Denver on top.
 
The Roadrunners will begin Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play next Friday, March 3 against CSU-Pueblo with the first game starting at 2 p.m.