LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Complete game victories are getting rarer and rarer for pitchers in the game of baseball.

For MSU Denver sophomore starting hurler Austin Stone (Arvada, Colo./Faith Christian), going the distance just means doing his job.  

"Today was taking care of business," Stone said following the Roadrunners' 7-3 victory over Colorado Christian. "I'm thankful (assistant coach Mark) Vig left me in (the game) in the ninth even though there were a couple iffy plays."

After needing only about 80 pitches to get through eight seamless innings of one-run ball, Stone faced a little bit of trouble in the bottom of the ninth with the Roadrunners leading 7-1 at All Star Park in Lakewood. He surrendered a leadoff walk followed by a double, putting Cougars on first and third with no outs.

That situation would prompt most coaches to go to a fresh arm, but the MSU Denver staff trusted their starter to put the win in stone.

"He earned that right to try and go a complete game," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said Friday. "He filled up the zone. He was able to get his curveball over whenever he wanted to and when you can do that, it puzzles hitters from taking good swings. He did a really nice job."

Stone induced an RBI groundout, putting a man on third with one out. A sacrifice fly made the second out while pushing CCU's third run across. Then came a two-out single. Stone stayed calm and got his 27^th and final out of the game on the next batter, who popped up to second base as MSU Denver (21-8, 14-3 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) maintained its first-place league standing.

The Garden City Community College product gave up just six hits in the game to improve to 5-2 on the season, lowering his ERA to an even 4.00 in the process. While Stone stymied Cougar hitters all day, his brothers in the MSU Denver batting order got revenge on a pitcher who stymied them earlier this season.

Starting pitcher Alex Ginn of Colorado Christian (8-22, 3-14 and T-8^th RMAC) went eight innings and gave up two hits while striking out 11 in a 7-0 win over the Roadrunners on Feb. 28, but history was not destined to repeat itself on Friday at All Star Park.

The Roadrunners got to Ginn early and often on Friday. It took only three at-bats for the Roadrunners to accumulate two hits this time, and both were solo home runs to give MSU Denver an early 2-0 lead. The first came off the bat of the red-hot Chase Anderson (Littleton, Colo./Columbine), who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored to extend his hitting streak to 17 and his streak of multi-hit games to nine.

Amazingly, Anderson has hit safely multiple times in 15 of those 17 games while raising his batting average to .385, second-best on the squad. He has six homers and 26 RBIs, good for third on the team in each category.

The only MSU Denver hitters with more homers and RBIs than Anderson this season are the two who had homers of their own on Friday.

Logan Soole (Louisville, Colo./Monarch) came to bat after Anderson's first-inning bomb, making it back-to-back jacks for the Roadrunners by launching his ninth homer of the season to dead center. Soole led off the third with a double then scored on an RBI single from Matt Malkin (Broomfield, Colo./Monarch), making it 3-0 in favor of MSU Denver.

It was the usual suspects again in the top of the fifth, as Anderson led off with a single before Soole ripped an RBI triple into the right-centerfield gap. Motoring around second base, Soole lost his helmet in Bryce Harper-like fashion and easily made it to third. It wouldn't matter which base he was standing on, however, when Malkin stepped to the plate.

Appearing somewhat off-balance after chasing an outside pitch, Malkin collected himself and absolutely demolished the next pitch for a no-doubt home run to left-center to give MSU Denver a 6-0 lead. It was his 19^th roundtripper of the season, furthering his conference and national leads in the category.

"There's times where it looks like he sets guys up a little bit," Strain said of Malkin. "You see hitters in the big leagues do that, where they look bad on a pitch and then they regroup and put a good swing on the next pitch. He does do a really good job of that. You don't see a whole lot of at-bats where he swings at the same pitch twice that's not a strike. Usually, if he makes a mistake and chases out of the zone, he regroups and comes back the next pitch and puts a pretty good swing on it."

Malkin finished the game 2-for-3 with a walk, a run scored and three RBIs, adding two stolen bases for good measure. He now has 52 RBIs on the season, leading the conference by a whopping 13. He's hitting a league-leading .439, by the way.

While Soole's first three runs of the game resulted from the Roadrunners' offensive firepower, his fourth run of the game may have been the most impressive. Soole worked a walk in the top of the ninth and proceeded to steal second base. He then proceeded to steal third base.

Then, Matt Malkin (Broomfield, Colo./Monarch) walked and took off for second base as Cade Peters (Stockton, Calif./St. Mary's) struck out. Soole bolted for home and made it safely. He had successfully stolen all the way around the bases.

Soole now has 13 steals to go with nine homers, 30 RBIs and a .349 batting average this season. He finished Friday's game 3-for-4 with four runs and two RBIs, falling just a single short of MSU Denver's second cycle of the season.

The Roadrunners' second through fourth positions in the lineup (Anderson, Soole and Malkin) continue to do what they're supposed to do: rake.

"Those three guys, two through four, they can swing it at any point," Strain said. "The main thing is, if they don't get themselves out, usually good things happen. Every ball they hit was on the screws."

The Roadrunners have won 15 of their last 16 games. They'll look to keep it going tomorrow in another matchup with Colorado Christian at All Star Park. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. MT in Lakewood.