DENVER – A strong start, and a strong starting pitching performance, helped No. 25 MSU Denver earn a victory in the first game of a doubleheader against CSU-Pueblo on Thursday.
The Roadrunners got another strong start in the nightcap, but mustered only four hits while losing for the first time all season. The results, a 12-10 win followed by a 3-1 loss, put MSU Denver at 9-1 overall and 5-1 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
"We got two good starts today," MSU Denver coach
Ryan Strain said. "Both guys came out and threw the ball well."
Austin Stone (1-0) drew the start in the opener and struck out nine, with no walks, while allowing four runs – two earned – on four hits over five innings.
The Roadrunners scored seven first-inning runs – their fourth straight game of scoring at least two in the opening frame – and Stone kept the momentum squarely with the Roadrunners, who eventually led 12-4 after seven innings.
A dropped fly ball with two outs in the first helped turn what would have been a two-run outburst into a seven-run uprising.
Cody Schultz capped the frame with a three-run homer.
Owen Reynolds later added a solo homer in the fifth.
Caleb Albaugh and
Chase Anderson each had two-hit games, while
Cade Peters,
Jake Williams and Reynolds all drove in two.
Eric Cox got the final four outs – striking out three – for his fourth save of the season.
While Stone, a three-year member of the Roadrunners' rotation was a known commodity,
Reichle Arcilise may be in the process of making himself one, too.
The freshman right-hander was coming off a dominant relief outing – eight strikeouts in three innings for a save against Colorado School of Mines – before getting his first career start in the second game.
Arcilese allowed one run on five hits while striking out four in five innings, but took the tough-luck loss. For the season he's allowed one earned run in nine innings, with one walk and 14 strikeouts, while allowing six hits and a .176 opponent batting average. His WHIP is 1.00.
"Reichle isn't used to that role, coming in as a spot starter, and he really threw the ball well," Strain said.
But the Roadrunners couldn't put a run on the board until the sixth inning of the seven-inning game. They stranded eight baserunners, including two in the fifth and one each in the sixth and seventh.
"We had our chances the second game," Strain said. "We had the right guys up in the right spots. We just couldn't get the big hit when we needed it."
