DENVER – After a tense, hard-fought, extra-inning win Saturday night against 11^th-ranked Dixie State, MSU Denver left little to chance when the teams met again Sunday morning.
 
Alyssa Richter blasted a three-run, first-inning homer over the scoreboard in right center field and the Roadrunners never looked back in an 11-3 victory in a game that was called after six innings due to the eight-run rule.
 
A couple of hours later the Roadrunners took care of business with a 6-1 win over Black Hills State to wrap up a 4-0 weekend at the Regency Athletic Complex. MSU Denver improved to 14-6 overall and 6-2 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, good for a tie for third place.
 
Dixie State, perhaps stinging from its 3-2 loss Saturday when MSU Denver scored two runs in the seventh to tie and then scored the game winner in the eighth, came out and put up a run in the top of the first inning Sunday.
 
But Richter turned that around quickly.
 
"I know they got the run in the first, but to be able to say, 'No,' and answer back with our own, that was great," Metropolitan State University of Denver coach Annie Van Wetzinga said. "We kind of took the energy right there and ran with it."
 
Rebecca Gonzales started the inning with a single and moved up to second as Olivia Dampier grounded out for the second out.
 
Then Dixie State, perhaps pitching carefully to Laney Sheppard, who hit the clutch game-tying homer in the seventh inning Saturday and came into the weekend ranked ninth nationally with five homers, walked the Roadrunners' cleanup hitter on four pitches that weren't close to the strike zone.
 
Whether the walk was unintentional or intentionally unintentional, Richter made them pay.
 
"I just wanted to drive in some runs," Richter said. "That's what I was focusing on, and I got a pitch that looked good and I took advantage of it.
 
"I was trying to drive it to the right side, and I got a little bit more than I was trying for, but that was good."
 
Richter finished with a career-high five RBIs after adding a run-scoring double in the third inning to make it 6-1, and then bringing on the mercy rule with an RBI single in the sixth to make it 11-3.
 
"She one-upped Laney, literally hit it out of the park," Van Wetzinga said. "She's locked in. I really think it's the result of somebody doing all the right things off the field, too, being a great teammate, bringing good energy and being a leader for the younger players. When you do that, focus on helping teammates, it helps you relax because you're not focused on yourself."
 
For the weekend Richter was 5-for-13 (.385) with two homers and seven RBIs. For the season she is at .300 with four homers and 14 RBIs in only 30 at-bats.
 
"Something just clicked for me, and it's good to get the results I've been looking for," Richter said.
 
Said Van Wetzinga, laughing: "She should start hitting the ball hard, right?"
 
Meanwhile, Darby McGhee pitched a complete-game victory for the second straight day against the Trailblazers (17-5, 5-3), who had come into the weekend batting .348 and averaging 6.9 runs per game.
 
McGhee (3-1) gave up three runs on seven hits while walking four and striking out two in her six-inning effort Sunday. For the weekend she held the Trailblazers to five runs on 12 hits in 14 innings, posting a 2.50 ERA keeping them to a .240 average.
 
"Darby was very competitive, very mature," Van Wetzinga said. "She wasn't quite as sharp, and they had already seen her a ton (Saturday). But she was able to pitch around some situations. I'm proud of the way she carried herself."
 
After a break, as the weather got colder and the threat of rain or snow loomed, it might have been easy for the Roadrunners to lose focus heading into the late game with Black Hills State (2-13, 1-7).
 
It didn't happen.
 
Sheppard hit a two-run homer – her seventh of the season – and added a sacrifice fly, Olivia Dampier had two hits to cap a 5-for-8 day, and Destinee Lopez earned a complete-game victory over the Yellow Jackets for the second day in a row.
 
"The biggest message after the Dixie game was, 'You need to finish,'" Van Wetzinga said. "'You have to bring it this game, because if you don't Black Hills will beat you. They are quite capable of it. Anybody in this conference is capable if you don't show up, so don't end it on a sour note after you've worked so hard and done such great things. Finish the weekend.' And they did."
 
Lopez (5-3) was even better than she had been Saturday, when she struck out a career-high eight against Black Hills State. She allowed one run on four hits while walking three and striking out seven.
 
"I'm really proud of the pitchers," Van Wetzinga said. "Darby and Destinee kept teams in check this weekend. It's not like they were super sharp, or super on, but they just grinded through it. That's truly pitching, because it doesn't always come easily. They were able to dig deep and compete, and they stranded a lot of runners on base."
 
"It's not easy," Van Wetzinga said. "But we felt like those were our best matchups for Day 2, and they both did well. We wanted to roll with it.