DENVER – A Metropolitan State University of Denver baseball team that has been dodging snowflakes and raindrops all season is set to play three games this weekend.
"It's been frustrating because we haven't been able to get into a rhythm and we still haven't played a true weekend series yet and we're moving into March," MSU Denver coach
Ryan Strain said. "We haven't been able to get as many guys in as we would have liked because we've had so few games, and we've lot of good pitchers who we're are going to count on that haven't gotten much experience yet."
The Roadrunners, who start Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play next weekend, get one last chance to get sharp with games Thursday against Mary (N.D.) and Colorado Christian at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., respectively, and another game Friday at 11 a.m. against Mary. The matchup with Colorado Christian will be a non-conference affair. All games are at the Regency Athletic Complex.
Mary will be playing its season opener. The Marauders are picked to finish last in the 14-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference after going 5-38 overall and 2-30 in league play last season. Colorado Christian is 3-7 and was picked to finish ninth in the RMAC after going 25-29 and 15-20 last year.
"Mary is a little like Sioux Falls was for us in that they have a new coach who has had great success, and we know they'll continue to get better and they'll have a good pitching plan against us," Strain said. "We'll have to make some adjustments on the fly. And Colorado Christian has quite a few new players, so we don't know a ton about them either."
The Roadrunners (4-4) had an impressive doubleheader split with Lubbock Christian (Texas) on Sunday, losing the opener 4-1 before claiming a 2-1, 10-inning win in the nightcap.
Ty Lightley (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge) leads the regulars with a .458 average, while
Jake Kistaitis (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) is hitting .412.
Matt Malkin (Broomfield, Colo./Monarch) is hitting .393 with three homers and 11 RBIs, with
Draven Adame (Lamar, Colo./Lamar) checking in at .364 with one homer and nine RBIs.
Javi Vega (Chula Vista, Calif./Castle Park) has been terrific on the mound with a record of 1-0 and a 1.32 ERA while recording 15 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings. He'll likely work out of the bullpen this weekend.
The Roadrunners' rotation for the weekend is
Branden Dehority (Chandler, Ariz./Mesquite) (0-0, 3.52) and
TJ Egloff (Brighton, Colo./Brighton) (0-0, 1.59) on Thursday, with
Logan Soole (Louisville, Colo./Monarch) (1-1, 3.09) scheduled to start Friday.
"We played really well against Lubbock Christian," Strain said. "Those were two really good baseball games, and that's more like what you would see in a Division I game with two teams with good arms on the mound. It was fun to see our team compete like that – especially when that team had kind of beat us up last year and basically had everyone coming back. Getting a split was a good boost for us, and let our guys know that we have the talent to play with teams like that."
