DENVER – It was a day in which MSU Denver had to curb its enthusiasm.
 
Riding positive momentum after knocking off Dixie State in another well-pitched gem from Darby McGhee (Camarillo, Calif./Adolfo Camarillo) for a 3-1 come-from-behind victory, the Roadrunners fell flat in the second game of the day against Black Hills State, losing to their upstart foes 6-4.
 
"We got three runs (early in the second game), and then it felt like we thought we were good," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Annie Van Wetzinga said. "Sooner or later you have to learn lessons and learn from past mistakes. At this level, if you take your foot off the gas pedal, you're going to pay for it. And we're in no position to feel comfortable. We need to continue to try to get better pitch-by-pitch, inning-by-inning, game-by-game."
 
MSU Denver (19-21 overall) came up short in its bid to reach .500 for the first time since March 12, but still sits in fifth place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at 14-10. The Roadrunners are 3 ½ games behind fourth-place Dixie State (25-9, 19-8) with 12 league games remaining before the RMAC tournament.
 
McGhee (8-9), who lost a 2-0 pitcher's duel against Dixie State and All-American Cambrie Hazel on Saturday after taking a one-hit shutout into the seventh inning, was just as good – if not better – on Sunday.
 
She surrendered a first-inning homer off the foul pole in left field to Jessica Gonzalez, but yielded little else in a four-hit complete game.
 
"I think she was even better," Van Wetzinga said. "Two games in a row to throw like that against a solid team, what more can you say? What more can you ask from someone?
 
"The runs she gave up (three in 14 innings), hats off to them. To come back and keep them in check (after the first inning homer), that was awesome. And our defense was solid."
 
Said McGhee: "It was the same approach. I just tried to be sharper, to hit more corners. A little bit of everything."
 
The junior right-hander shrugged off the first-inning homer and just went back to work.
 
"It was a solo home run, so it's not that big of a deal," she said. "And it was early in the game, so we still had time to come back from it. You can deal with one run."
 
MSU Denver put together the winning rally in the fifth inning against Carissa Burgess (14-4).
Koryna Wright (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Rancho Cucamonga) and Ari Valdez (Denver, Colo./John F. Kennedy) each hit one-out singles ahead of Megan Sansburn (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge), who followed with an RBI single that scored pinch-runner Kassi Reiger (Loveland, Colo./Loveland) to tie the game.
 
Then the Roadrunners' fourth consecutive hit, a line drive through the left side of the infield by Rebecca Gonzales (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista), scored two runs to make it 3-1.
 
"We were struggling at first, but we came around," Sansburn said. "The good thing that came out of it is that, at the beginning of the game, we were putting the ball in play. We just weren't getting hits, but we were making the defense work. We just had to find some gaps. Finally when we had people on base, it worked out."
 
The Roadrunners started strong in the nightcap, as Sansburn's RBI double was part of a first-inning rally that gave the club a 3-1 lead.
 
But the Yellow Jackets (10-19, 7-14) hung in there and put up four fourth-inning runs, which included a three-run homer by Maddi Fidler. MSU Denver couldn't bounce back.
 
"It's a real disappointment, especially with how well we came out in the first game," said Sansburn, who was 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the nightcap and finished the weekend 6-for-13 with five RBIs. "Dixie is a really good team. This one (the second game) wasn't what we were looking for, but I haven't lost any confidence in our team.
 
"I don't want to just shrug this game off, but we did a lot of great things this weekend, too. It's too bad this didn't go our way. We'll just have to be better and pick it up."
 
Said Van Wetzinga: "Hats off to Black Hills. They're scrappy. They put the ball in play. They play together. That's a program getting better. It used to be you could be flat against them, but Coach (Lane) Leedy is doing a good job. They've got some athletes out there who can make things happen."