GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – MSU Denver got back on track Wednesday night.
 
And Logan Soole was driving the train.
 
Soole's second homer of the game, a solo shot in the top of the ninth inning, lifted Metropolitan State University of Denver to a 10-9 victory over 22^nd- and 29^th-ranked Colorado School of Mines in the first round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament.
 
"He was really good, obviously," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said of Soole. "He hit the home runs, and he smoked another one that I can't believe didn't go out – the guy caught it at the 400 (foot) sign, and anywhere else he would've had three homers. But he had a lot of good (at-bats) all the way through."
 
In a back-and-forth game, Soole's 14^th homer of the season ultimately helped the fifth-seeded Roadrunners (28-22) snap an eight-game losing streak and advance to a winner's bracket game Thursday at 7 p.m. against third-seeded Dixie State (34-17). Mines had swept MSU Denver in a four-game series that wrapped up Saturday.
 
Dixie State won its first-round game in the double-elimination tournament 2-1 over the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, while Nos. 4 and 1 Colorado Mesa, the top-seeded tournament host, beat Colorado State University-Pueblo 11-4 in the other first-round game.
 
Relievers Eric Cox (1-2) and Taylor Petersen combined for three scoreless, no-hit relief innings, with Cox picking up the win facing six batters in the final two innings. The defeat in the 3-hour, 27-minute classic dropped Mines to 36-12 and snapped the Orediggers' six-game winning streak.
 
"Cox was really, really good," Strain said. "His stuff was sharp. And it was really big for us to get a double play behind him (after an error) in the eighth inning. That meant they had the 9-hole hitter leading off the ninth."
 
Soole was 4-for-6 to lead a 17-hit attack, while Jake Kistaitis was 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs and Zach Walsh was 3-for-3.
 
"It was good to get a win for our guys," Strain said. "We played so well. After what we've gone through this last stretch of conference games, and especially after we got behind again tonight, that was big. We knew we'd be fine if we could just swing the bats like we can."
 
After starter Zach Sundine gave up single runs in the first (on a Mikey Gangwish RBI double) and second (Derek Daly homer) inning, MSU Denver struck for four third-inning runs to take the lead.
 
Draven Adame's RBI triple got the Roadrunners on the board, and a run-scoring single by Walsh tied it. The Roadrunners took the lead as a run scored on an error, and then Ty Lightley's RBI single made it 4-2.
 
The Roadrunners upped the lead to 5-2 in the fourth as Walsh scored on a wild pitch, but Mines bounced back. After scoring a run in the bottom of the fourth, the Orediggers made it a five-run rally on a grand slam by Gangwish to take a 7-5 lead.
 
Back came the Roadrunners.
 
Kistaitis' fifth-inning homer cut the deficit to 7-6.
 
Then, in the sixth, Soole homered to tie the game, and MSU Denver moved back in front on Kistaitis' sacrifice fly.
 
Reliever Cade Crader, MSU Denver's best pitcher the past two weeks, ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth, but – though he issued a bases-loaded walk that tied the game 8-8 – he minimized the damage. Crader was charged with two runs in the 2 1/3 innings, though he struck out five.
 
And the Roadrunners took the lead in the top of the seventh, as Chase Anderson stole home on the back end of a double steal.
 
But Mines re-tied the game 9-9 in the bottom of the seventh on a passed ball.
 
That just set the stage for Soole, though.
 
"With our 2-3-4 hitters (Anderson, Soole and Matt Malkin) coming up, as good as they are, I felt pretty good about our chances," Strain said.
 
So MSU Denver has at least two more chances.
 
"It's just like the basketball saying, 'Survive and advance,'" Strain said.