DENVER – If you've seen Logan Soole (Louisville, Colo./Monarch) play baseball, you know the man can do it all.

In the second game of Sunday's MSU Denver baseball doubleheader against Lubbock Christian, he did.

MSU Denver head coach Ryan Strain called upon the Roadrunners' mighty southpaw to take the hill in the top of the seventh inning after a fantastic start by Javi Vega (Chula Vista, Calif./Castle Park). Soole responded by delivering 3 2/3 innings of scoreless, three-hit ball against a team that came into the weekend with a .323 batting average, 16^th-best in NCAA Division II. Then, when MSU Denver loaded the bases for Soole in the bottom of the 10^th with the game tied 1-1, he delivered once again.

This time, it was an RBI hit over the head of the Chaps' centerfielder to win the game for MSU Denver.

"Logan coming in after playing centerfield for a game and half then having to step in and pitch with very little warmup was huge," Strain said. "If we're going to be the team that I think we have the chance to be, our pitching staff is going to have to do that. And if they do that, we have enough offense and we're going to start to swing the bats better where we're going to be able to score more runs.

"You can't say enough about (Vega and Soole), and really those four guys who threw for us (on Sunday) all did a tremendous job."

Pitching was the Roadrunners' strongest suit on Sunday. Vega was nothing short of dominant in the second game, tossing 6 1/3 innings of four-hit ball while striking out seven and walking just one. His lone earned run came on a homer in the third inning.
"Javi pitched as good as you can see," Strain said. "That's a really good hitting team."

The Chaps were scoring at a clip of 7.7 runs per game coming into the weekend, but their bats were all but silenced at the hands of MSU Denver's pitching staff on Sunday to the tune of five total runs. Vega and Soole scattered a total of seven hits in the second game, but there were never any big scoring threats with the exception of the home run.  

"Those are two really good arms," Strain said of Vega and Soole, who got the game two win in relief.

Even when pitching is good, you have to score runs to win games, and the Roadrunners found a way to do it in game two after managing just four hits and one run in a 4-1 game one loss.

MSU Denver broke an 11-inning scoreless streak in the bottom of the eighth inning of the second game, squeaking out a run to tie it. Ty Lightley (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge) – who was 3-for-5 over the two games – started the inning with an infield single. Pinch-runner Eric Cox (Aurora, Colo./Cherokee Trail) advanced to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a sacrifice bunt by Chase Anderson (Littleton, Colo./Columbine).

Then came true freshman Zach Paschke (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) to the dish. Paschke poked a grounder through the hole into left field to score Cox, tying the game with the most clutch of his three hits in the game. Paschke and Lightley, half of the regular infield for the Roadrunners, have started off the 2019 season on a tear – Lightley leads the squad with a .458 batting average while Paschke is hitting .333.

MSU Denver forced the game into extras by retiring Lubbock Christian in the top of the ninth, but only after two LCU coaches were ejected over a disputed call.

Zach Walsh (Austin, Texas/Vista Ridge), who replaced pinch-runner Cox as third baseman in the top of the 10^th, led off the bottom of the inning with a clutch single. Chase Anderson (Littleton, Colo./Columbine) laid down a great bunt to force an erratic throw by the LCU catcher, and the Roadrunners had something going with men on first and second and no outs.

Paschke played hero once again with a swinging-bunt single to the pitcher, who had no play. Soole stepped up in the bases-loaded, no-outs situation knowing he simply needed to get the ball out of the infield in order to give MSU Denver a good chance to walk off with a victory.

Soole didn't waste time, lacing a pitch over the centerfielder's head for the walk­-off RBI single – a hit that would've certainly been extra bases if not for the game-ending scenario.

"Our message was just keep competing, keep grinding out at-bats, keep making them make pitches," Strain said. "Fortunately we were able to get enough big hits in certain situations to give us a situation to win."

Paschke swiped two bags along with his 3-for-5 hitting display in the second game, while Cade Peters (Stockton, Calif./St. Mary's) contributed MSU Denver's other extra-base hit in the form of a seventh-inning double. Peters also doubled in the first game, while Chase Anderson's (Littleton, Colo./Columbine) RBI double provided MSU Denver's lone game one run.

Starter Austin Stone (Arvada, Colo./Faith Christian) went four in the opener, giving up three earned runs, while TJ Egloff (Brighton, Colo./Brighton) went 2 2/3 in relief and gave up three hits and one earned run. Both pitchers struck out three Chaps.

MSU Denver is back at the Regency Athletic Complex for three more home games next weekend, taking on the University of Mary for a single game on Saturday before facing Mary and Colorado Christian in a double dip on Sunday.