Denver- The Metropolitan State University of Denver baseball team fell 8-6 to University of Northern Colorado on Friday, April 14. The Roadrunners fell to 16-19 overall and the Bears improved to 14-17 overall.
 
Junior Beecher Strube (Casper, WY/Kelly Walsh High School) started out on the mound for Roadrunners against the Bears pitching through to the fifth inning.
 
The Roadrunners held the Bears scoreless through the second inning where the Bears put up one hit and left three on base.
 
MSU Denver put the first runs on the day up on the board in the top of the third inning. Senior Jake Thurston (Centennial, Colo./Grandview H.S.) made it on base first in the inning for the Roadrunners off a UNC walk. Junior Trent Maloney (Castle Rock, Colo./Douglas County H.S.) was then singled to center field, moving Thurston to third base. Thurston was then able to score the first run of the game on a wild pitch with Maloney moving to second. The next at bat for the Roadrunners consisted of junior Cale O'Donnell (Fort Collins, Colo./Rocky Mountain H.S.) hitting a single through the right side to score Maloney and put the Roadrunners up 2-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning.
 
The Bears made it on the board in the bottom of the fourth leading off with two straight doubles and a sacrifice fly to score the lone run and cut the Roadrunners led to 2-1.
 
MSU Denver brought the heat back to lead off the fifth inning scoring three runs off four hits. Senior Jake Ekman (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge H.S.) was the first to get a hit in the inning, hitting a double down the left line. Maloney then followed singling to right field to score Ekman.  O'Donnell kept the momentum going hitting another double for the Roadrunners, followed by junior Sean Kennedy (Aurora, Colo./Grandview High School) flying out to score Maloney, putting the score at 4-1 in favor of the Roadrunners. O'Donnell scored the final run in the fifth for the Roadrunners on a UNC error.
 
The Bears would fight back to have the edge over the Roadrunners the remainder of the game, taking off in the bottom of the eighth inning to score three runs, bringing the score within one going into the top of the ninth inning.
 
The Roadrunners put one more run up in the ninth inning with Maloney earning another RBI on the day to score Junior Donny Ortiz Jr. However, that would prove to be not enough as the Bears put up four more runs with the final three runs coming off a walk-off home run to left field for the Bears to earn a 8-6 win over the Roadrunners.
 
MSU Denver will host UNC in a doubleheader on Saturday, April 15 with the first game scheduled to begin at 12 noon.