DENVER – One day. Two very different games.

Two more in the win column for the Metropolitan State University of Denver baseball team.

The Roadrunners (25-10, 18-5 and tied for first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) capitalized on seven Dixie State errors in Saturday's opener, exploding for all of their runs in a three-inning span during a 14-3 win, before ending the day with a hard-fought 4-1 victory in the second contest.

"I told (the team) before the series started that the team that's going to win this – because we're very similar teams – are the ones that compete the most and put the most balls in play," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said Saturday. "I thought we did that really well in the first game. We had a lot of two-strike hits, a lot of battles, and we only struck out four times."

MSU Denver not only took advantage of Dixie State's plethora of mistakes in the field, but caused the Trailblazers to make more of them.

"We're a constant pain to deal with, especially on the bases," Strain said. "We bunt all the time, we hit and run. I bet you we hit and run more than any team in the league. We steal a lot. Everybody points to the power we had going there for a while. We've got to try to figure out other ways to score, so that's why we've done some of those things. We made them make a lot of those errors."

Dixie State (24-13, 14-9 and T-4^th RMAC) opened up an early 2-0 lead in game one, but a two-run double off the bat of Zach Paschke evened things up in the third. Draven Adame delivered a two-run single later in the third, and Dixie State got one back in the fourth.

That's when the floodgates opened.

A combination of errors and wild pitches helped MSU Denver extend its lead to 6-3 in the fourth, but the majority of the damage was done an inning later as the Roadrunners exploded for eight runs in the fifth on just four hits.

The Roadrunners loaded the bases with no outs to start the inning thanks to a double from Matt Malkin, a walk from Adame and a sacrifice bunt attempt-turned-error that left Cade Peters standing on first base with Adame on second and Malkin on third.

Zach Walsh hit by a pitch. 7-3.

Jake Kistaitis sacrifice fly. 8-3.

Aaron Germani infield single. 9-3.

Ty Lightley reaches on error. 10-3.

Paschke then struck out for the second out, but the Roadrunners were far from done.

Chase Anderson hit by pitch.

Malkin – batting for the second time in the inning – two run-single. 12-3.

Double steal. Wild pitch. 13-3.

Adame infield single. 14-3.

The game went from tight battle to out-of-reach blowout in a matter of moments as MSU Denver cashed in on every Trailblazer mistake to secure the victory.

TJ Egloff went six strong innings for the Roadrunners on the mound, giving up three earned runs on five hits while striking out six. Egloff improved to 2-1 on the season with a very respectable 3.00 ERA.

Speaking of starting pitching, the Roadrunners got an impressive start from Zach Sundine in game two. The junior followed suit after Egloff with six strong innings of his own, giving up just one earned run on five hits while striking out five Trailblazers and walking one. Getting a rare start, Sundine put the Roadrunners in a great position to win game two.

"The two big starting pitching performances by Egloff and Sundine were key," Strain said. "To have guys step up that are really good pitchers but are more your bullpen guys, to step up like that was unbelievable."

Dixie State struck first again in the second game as Jake Engel – the Trailblazers' best hitter who had been silenced by MSU Denver pitching for most of the weekend – came through with an RBI single in the top of the third.

Lightley started a small rally for MSU Denver in the bottom of the frame, singling to right field before Paschke beat out an infield single to first base. After a wild pitch moved both runners over, the Trailblazers figured they'd be better off intentionally walking Malkin than letting him hit. Another wild pitch, however led to the Roadrunners' first run of the game as Lightley scored.

It wasn't till the bottom of the sixth inning that MSU Denver broke open the game. A walk, infield single and sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third for Zach Walsh, who walked. Kistaitis then worked a walk to bring the go-ahead run home.

After a fielder's choice forced Adame out at the plate, Lightley came up with the bases loaded and two outs. The MSU Denver infielder fought off a pitch and poked a blooper down the right field line for a huge two-run double to make it 4-1.

"Later in the game, guys had some great at-bats," Strain said. "Ty Lightley had that great at bat at the end. (Our lead) went from one run to three runs with two strikes. (He) just fought it off. Just big, tough at-bats.

"Ultimately, we've just got to score more runs than they do. It doesn't matter how it happens, we've just got to have more than they do at the end."

That scenario happened twice on Saturday as the Roadrunners came away with two key victories.  
Malkin was 2-for-4 in the doubleheader, scoring three times with two RBIs and three walks. Lightley was 2-for-6 during the doubleheader, scoring four times and driving in three runs. Adame was 2-for-3 in the opener, driving in three runs, while Germani got the start in center field for both games and went 3-for-4 in the opener with two runs scored and an RBI.

The Roadrunners will look to lock up the series win when they take on Dixie State tomorrow at noon MDT at the Regency Athletic Complex.