DENVER – MSU Denver will be seeking better early-innings success when it returns to baseball action with a three-game weekend series with Central Oklahoma.
 
Games at the Assembly Athletic Complex are scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with first pitch at noon each day.
 
In dropping two of three games in a season-opening series with Minot State (N.D.) last weekend, MSU Denver trailed 5-0, 6-0 and 4-0. The Roadrunners gave up five first-inning runs in the opener and six second-inning runs in the second game.
 
"We need to get off to a better start," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "Last week, the first few innings on Saturday in both games we gave up a big crooked number early which included too many free bases. We need to get good starting pitching in each game, and we also need to get going earlier offensively.
 
"I felt like our team was on its heels too much early in those games. We need to figure out what the pitcher is trying to do early in the game and hit better as a unit this weekend."
 
Strain remains confident in his rotation of Carter Akerfelds, returning RMAC Co-Freshman Pitcher of the Year Reichle Arcilise, and veteran Tyler Phillips, who was impressive in taking a two-hit shutout into the fifth inning of his start.
 
"With that being Tyler's first career start for us, we weren't sure what to expect," Strain said. "But Tyler did what he does.  He commanded the zone and attacked their hitters, and he gave us a really good start on Sunday."
 
While Minot State is picked to finish fourth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, so too is Central Oklahoma picked to finish fourth in its league – the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.
 
MSU Denver, picked third in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference this season, was swept in a three-game series in Edmond, Okla., two seasons ago. This season the Bronchos are off to a 2-1 start.
 
"They've been a good program year in and year out," Strain said. "They had a very good team when we went down there in 2020.  Most of their roster has changed over since we played them last and so had ours.  We want to play as many good teams as we can in our non-conference, and Central Oklahoma is going to be another good test."
 
Strain will have additional pitching options this weekend as rotation mainstay Austin Stone appears ready to be stretched out a bit longer in a relief role after pitching an inning last weekend, and Andrew Hayes appears set to make his Roadrunners debut.
 
"Hopefully we can get Stone ready to start again, and then hopefully we can get Andrew Hayes on the mound," Strain said. "He had a very good fall, but got hit with a line drive leading up to our first game and wasn't ready last week.  It will be nice to see what those two guys can add with extended innings as the season progresses."
 
Meanwhile, super-utility player Cody Schultz is set to return as either a spot starter or valuable reserve.
 
"He had a good fall and January leading up to the season," Strain said. "We will need to figure out how to get him into the lineup at some point this weekend."
 
Schultz only adds to a deep pool of position players fighting for regular playing time. That list includes true freshman outfielder Cam Yuran, who homered in his first collegiate at-bat as a pinch-hitter in the second game, then homered and threw out the potential winning run at the plate in the 11^th inning when getting his first career start on Sunday.
 
Yuran is one of four players on the roster to homer in his first MSU Denver at-bat – RMAC Player of the Week Bill Ralston and shortstop Caleb Albaugh did it last season, and outfielder Ross Smith did it in Saturday's first game.
 
"Cam had a very good fall, but you never know how that will translate for a freshman once we start playing," Strain said. "But, yeah, he played really well last weekend.  He will get more shots to show what he can do this weekend."