DENVER – Sometimes, you wish you could spread the offense from one game evenly across a couple other games.
For instance, a few of MSU Denver's 17 hits and 13 runs against No. 6 Colorado Mesa (37-8, 24-6 and 1
st place Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) on Friday would have helped the Roadrunners (27-17, 19-12 and T-3
rd RMAC) in Saturday's doubleheader against the Mavericks.
The Roadrunners came up with just eight total hits in the double dip, losing the first contest by a 4-1 score before dropping game two, 5-2.
"The tough part was I thought we really swung the bats well the first game," MSU Denver coach
Ryan Strain said on Saturday. "We hit a lot of balls hard. Even in the second game, a good group of guys hit the ball really well and we just couldn't get anything going. We kept lining out. We couldn't get the momentum. Once we lost the momentum after that tough loss yesterday, it's tough to get back. You've just got to keep fighting and scratching."
A strong start from
Austin Stone kept the Roadrunners within striking distance in game one, as Stone scattered five hits and gave up four earned runs in the complete game loss. Colorado Mesa scored once in the first, once in the third and added two insurance runs in the sixth.
Cade Peters worked a walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth to make it 4-1, but
Jake Kistaitis struck out to end MSU Denver's comeback threat.
Zach Sundine pitched four innings in the second game, giving up five runs but just three earned runs and striking out four Mavericks.
Cade Crader was dominant once again in relief, giving up just one hit over the final three innings while registering two strikeouts.
Unfortunately, the five-run deficit was too deep a hole for the Roadrunners.
Matt Malkin gave the Roadrunners hope with his 24
th homer of the season in the bottom of the fourth, a majestic blast to left, but that was about it offensively until the sixth inning.
Malkin produced another run in the sixth, scoring
Zach Paschke on a double. He was 2-for-3 in the contest and now has an RMAC-leading 65 RBIs on the season to go with his league-leading .436 batting average and 24 roundtrippers.
Colorado Mesa closer Will Dixon shut down MSU Denver's comeback hopes in the second game with a four-out save. He earned saves in both games of the doubleheader.
The two close losses are obviously frustrating for a team that scored nearly at will against some of the Mavericks' top pitching options on Friday, when pitching and defense was more of a struggle for the Roadrunners. And when MSU Denver's pitching was strong on Saturday, the hits were hard to come by.
"When you're playing championship-type teams and you're playing those guys that are used to winning, you have to play well in all three phases," Strain said. "If you don't, you're not going to win because they haven't beat themselves. They made the plays when they needed to and didn't allow for bigger innings to happen for us by making plays. If you don't do all three things well against the No. 6 ranked team in the country, you're not going to beat them. You're going to lose close games."
MSU Denver has a final chance to put together all three phases of the game against the Mavericks when the two schools play the last game of their series for Senior Day at noon MDT tomorrow.
MSU Denver will celebrate its 12 seniors with pregame festivities at the Regency Athletic Complex.
