DENVER – Anything can happen in baseball.

A player can go 5-for-5 at the plate and still walk away immensely disappointed in the game's final result.

MSU Denver's Matt Malkin recorded his third five-hit game of the 2019 season – you read that right – but was thrown out at home plate on Draven Adame's single on the final play of Friday's series-opening, 9-8 loss to Dixie State.

"It was a tough break," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "A new leftfielder comes in the game and just kind of threw it where it needed to go. It bounced on the turf right where he wanted it."

Malkin had laced his fifth hit of the game, a double off Dixie State closer Brayden Bonner, to start a rally for the Roadrunners (23-10, 16-5 and first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. Adame followed with a single through the left side, his third hit of the contest, but Malkin – the would-be game-tying run – was cut down at home.

As the game slipped out of MSU Denver's grasp in a moment, missed opportunities proved to be the Roadrunners' downfall.

"We had plenty of chances," Strain said. "We had bases loaded in the first inning, three straight strikeouts. We had bases loaded, hit into a double play. We had bases loaded (and hit a) roll over to first. Runner at third, less than two outs, we strike out.

We've got to battle harder. We were going to have to battle with two strikes and put balls in play. (Dixie State) beat us at that today. That's pretty much the only thing they beat us at. We've got to do better than that. We've got to battle at the plate."

MSU Denver had to claw back into Friday's game to begin with. Lane Pritchard of Dixie State (24-11, 14-7 and T-3^rd RMAC) led off the game with a home run to centerfield and the Trailblazers added two more runs on an RBI single and sacrifice fly to take a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the first. Another Trailblazer sacrifice fly in the second made it 4-1 after Malkin's RBI single in the bottom of the first.

Another RBI single from Malkin in the bottom of the third brought the Roadrunners within 4-2, but an offensive explosion was waiting in the fifth.

Huge two-run hits from Ty Lightley and Chase Anderson highlighted a six-run fifth inning for MSU Denver as the Roadrunners charged ahead by an 8-4 count. Lightley poked a two-run single up the middle before Anderson's two-run triple gave MSU Denver its biggest lead of the night.

MSU Denver starting hurler Austin Stone was pulled after giving up a three-run homer in the sixth to bring Dixie State within one run, 8-7, leaving it up to the MSU Denver bullpen to close out the game.

Dixie State managed one run each in the eighth and ninth innings, however, pulling ahead 9-8 for what would eventually be the final score.
 
"When our bullpen comes in, they've got to close the door," Strain said. "When you have a lead like that, you've got to close the door."

The Dixie State bullpen allowed two runs after starter Jayden Murray was pulled with one out in the fifth, but the MSU Denver offense was silenced for the most part in the final three frames. The Roadrunners scored six times on Murray (five earned runs), collecting 10 of their 16 hits on Friday off the Trailblazers' starter.

Malkin contributed nearly one third of MSU Denver's total number of base hits, raising his season batting average to a mind-boggling .445 while his slugging percentage rose to an even 1.000. Both averages lead the conference, while his 54 RBIs lead the league by a massive margin (14 more than Jake Engel of Dixie State).

The only time Malkin didn't reach on a base hit on Friday was when he was intentionally walked in the fifth inning.

"He does a great job just giving himself a chance," Strain said. "When he's up you know good things are going to happen."

Meanwhile, Anderson was 3-for-5 with his 16^th multi-hit game in his last 19. Anderson's average is up to .374, while Adame's is at .370 after a 2-for-5 performance on Friday.  

The Roadrunners will look to get back on track in Saturday's doubleheader against the Trailblazers. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. MT at the Regency Athletic Complex, with game two to start approximately 30 minutes after the completion of game one.