DENVER – The MSU Denver baseball schedule is about to take a distinctive turn.
While rolling out to an 18-2 start and a No. 18 national ranking, the Roadrunners have sailed past teams with a collective winning percentage of .256. Now that they have reached the exact halfway mark of the 40-game regular season, MSU Denver is bracing for a season-ending stretch playing teams with a collective winning percentage of .620.
"Everybody is excited about how the program is playing and the direction it's going," MSU Denver coach
Ryan Strain said. "But in baseball it can change in a minute. The minute you think you've got it figured out, it can smack you in the mouth.
"But the guys have been good about it, and we have a veteran team with a lot of guys who were here two years ago when we were playing really well (a school-record 14-game winning streak) and unfortunately between injuries and not playing well, we just didn't play well enough down the stretch. And that's still on a lot of guys' minds. They know that it really is one game at a time."
It starts this weekend with a four-game home series against UCCS (12-4), with a single game Thursday at 6 p.m., a Friday doubleheader at 1 p.m., and a single game Saturday at noon.
"UCCS has a good team that is well coached and is playing well and will be the best team we've faced so far this year," MSU Denver coach
Ryan Strain said. "Offensively they're similar to where we're at. And the first pitcher they'll throw against us, numbers-wise and from seeing him in the past, he'll be the best arm we've seen so far this year."
MSU Denver's version of the arms race includes a strong four-man starting rotation of
Logan Soole,
Cade Crader,
Austin Stone and
Jimmy Dobrash.
In his Saturday start against CSU-Pueblo, Crader pitched a nine-inning perfect game – just the 11
th nine-inning perfect game in Division II history dating to 1963. He has since been the subject of multiple television news reports, and even got a shoutout from Governor Jared Polis on Twitter.
"He can only go down from here, right?" Strain said, laughing. "But he's pretty grounded, and if there's anybody who can come back from a performance like that and be ready to go, it's him. I think he understands how well he pitched, but in other games he's thrown really well and just had some hits fall in here or there and maybe given up a walk. He's been pretty dominant in every start."
Soole is scheduled to pitch the opening game of the series, with Crader and Stone getting starts in the Friday doubleheader and Dobrash closing out the series.
Hidden in Crader's shadow last weekend – beyond high-quality outings from Soole, Stone and Dobrash – was another offensive explosion that resulted in 57 runs in four games.
Jake Williams was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's Player of the Week (Crader was Pitcher of the Week) after going 7-for-13 (.538) with four homers and nine RBIs.
"A lot of the guys were saying, 'I didn't realize he had that good of a weekend,'" Strain said. "And so many guys had good weekends and did a great job, but the pitching performance by Cade was such a focus.
"Jake has really swung it well since he got here. He struggled a little bit a couple of weeks ago and we got him out of the lineup for a couple of games, but he worked on some things and figured it out."
