COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – It's been a while for the MSU Denver baseball team.
 
After dropping both ends of a doubleheader Friday at UCCS, 8-0 and 8-6, the Roadrunners are assured of losing a series of at least two games for the first time since the opening weekend of the season.
 
"Our guys are feeling a little bit of everything," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "They're wondering why things are going this way. They are continuing to play hard, but it's been one of those weekends that you get every once in a while. I've told them I'm proud of the way they've played and the way they've handled some adverse situations that are out of their control."
 
MSU Denver, which dropped the opening game of the series to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs on Thursday 13-5, had gone 6-0-3 when playing the same team at least twice in a weekend since being swept at Cal State San Marcos on the season's opening weekend.
 
The Roadrunners are 25-14 overall and have slid back into a third-place tie with UCCS (26-15) in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at 18-9. They'll play for sole possession of third with the Mountain Lions in Saturday's series finale at noon.
 
MSU Denver made multiple comeback attempts in Friday's nightcap but could never get over the hump.
 
The Roadrunners tied the game 3-3 in the fifth inning on Zach Paschke's sacrifice fly, the Roadrunners' third run-scoring fly out of the game.
 
But UCCS scored two in the bottom of the fifth and three more in the bottom of the sixth after MSU Denver had scored a run on Logan Soole's homer to get back within 5-4. The Roadrunners had the bases loaded with one out later in the frame, but couldn't push another run across.
 
"That was a killer," Strain said.
 
Trailing 8-4 entering the seventh, the Roadrunners rallied with an RBI double by Soole and a homer by Matt Malkin – however, Soole had been picked off second just ahead of Malkin's homer, so the deficit was still 8-6.
 
Soole's homer was his 10^th of the year, while for Malkin it was No. 20.
 
Still the NCAA Division II leader in homers per game, Malkin had homered just once in the previous 13 games while rounding back into form. He also had a long triple Saturday as he continues his pursuit of the RMAC Triple Crown.
 
"Logan and Matt looked like themselves again in second game, and that was nice to see," Strain said.
 
In the opener, UCCS' Colin Cicere (4-2) pitched a three-hit shutout with two walks and five strikeouts.
 
The Roadrunners had hits in each of the first two innings but no more until the seventh. They left the bases loaded in the first inning.
 
"We just couldn't get anything going," Strain said. "It was weird feeling. We'd hit it hard, but it would be right at somebody."