DENVER – After a stirring late-game comeback, MSU Denver came up just short in a classic pitching duel Saturday at the Regency Athletic Complex.
Laney Sheppard's (Fountain Valley, Calif./Fountain Valley) grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead and kick-started a seven-run sixth inning as the Roadrunners beat Black Hills State 8-5 in Saturday's opening game.
In the nightcap, matching fifth-place MSU Denver against fourth-place Dixie State, the Roadrunners'
Darby McGhee (Camarillo, Calif./Adolfo Camarillo) went pitch-for-pitch against Dixie State All-American Cambrie Hazel before the Trailblazers got a two-run double from Dani Bartholf in the top of the seventh-inning to produce the only runs in a 2-0 win.
The same teams square off again Sunday, with the Roadrunners (18-20 overall, 13-9 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) facing Dixie State (25-8, 19-7) at 11 a.m. and Black Hills State (9-18, 6-13) at 3 p.m.
"It's always good – good, bad or ugly – to get a 'W,' Metropolitan State University of Denver coach
Annie Van Wetzinga said, referring to the opening-game win. "At the end of the day, we had one good inning of offense. We don't want to have moral victories, and we don't want to just get by. We want to show up and take care of business."
Sheppard took care of business in the opener, clubbing her sixth homer of the year over the fence in left center after a
Megan Sansburn (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge) walk, a hit by pitch that allowed
Rebecca Gonzales (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista) to reach, and a single by McGhee that loaded the bases.
"I knew it had a chance," Sheppard said. "When I was running around first base, 'I was yelling, it went over!'"
Sheppard credited observation from a teammate for giving her just enough power.
"My team really helped me out," Sheppard said. "I popped up my first two at-bats and I wondered, 'Why does this keep happening to me?' Then Peyton (Matejka) told me, 'Use your legs, use your legs.' So I used my legs. The ball definitely went up, but it went over. So the advice definitely helped."
Said Van Wetzinga: "She had a nice at-bat. She was fouling some stuff off. She was getting locked in, which is what kind of happens in that situation. As the at-bat goes on, the percentages go in favor of the hitter. She finally got one barreled up."
Abby Anderson (Loveland, Colo./Loveland) followed with an RBI single, then Sansburn capped the rally with a two-run single.
Julia Heitz (Queen Creek, Ariz./Queen Creek) (6-5) earned the pitching win. She had allowed just two hits in 4 2/3 shutout relief innings before Black Hills State started its own two-run rally in the top of the seventh.
Kylee Burnside (Idaho Falls, Idaho/Skyline) came on to get the final out, earning her second career save.
"Julia kept them in check, got a lot of ground balls," Van Wetzinga said. "Would have liked to have seen her come out and finish after getting a big inning from her offense, but Kylee was ready to go in and finish off the game."
In the second game, Hazel (10-4) didn't allow a Roadrunner to reach second base. She walked two and struck out nine in a three-hit shutout.
"After the first inning we got tougher and started having some better at-bats, some longer at-bats," Van Wetzinga said. "But still, we've got to find a way to break through. We need to recognize the high pitch earlier, lay off it more, and take advantage when she does bring it in there."
Hazel, a third-team All-American last year as a freshman, features rise-ball that causes hitters problems. She's struck out 129 in 95 1/3 innings this season, while allowing 4.5 hits per seven innings.
"She throws it at a couple of different levels," Van Wetzinga said of the rise-ball. "She can throw it for a strike, and she throws it up a little higher and out of the zone, shoulder-level. Not too often at our level do you see a true rise-ball pitcher with that much control over it. That's probably why she's had the success she's had.
"We made some adjustments. We started battling better. But the expectation is to break through and string some things together."
Dixie State's late rally made a hard-luck loser of McGhee (7-9), who took a one-hit shutout into the seventh inning.
"Darby threw awesome," Van Wetzinga said. "She kind of matched her."
A hit-by-pitch and a fielder's choice set up Bartholf for her clutch, two-out, two-run double.
"Hats off to the girl with the hit," Van Wetzinga said. "It wasn't a bad pitch. It was up in the zone also, one of Darby's rise balls, and the girl really used her hands well, kept them high, which is what you do against a rise-ball pitcher."
