DENVER – The MSU Denver baseball team got its first win of the season Sunday, and it didn't come easily.
 
After a stunning doubleheader sweep at the hands of Minot State (N.D.) on Saturday, the Roadrunners overcame a 4-0, sixth-inning deficit, forced extra innings at 5-5 on Ross Smith's two-out RBI double in the bottom of the ninth, then won it in the bottom of the 11^th on Bill Ralston's walk-off single.
 
"I'm just really proud of how the guys played today," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "We dug ourselves quite a hole yesterday. We didn't capitalize early today and were in another hole at 4-0. But our guys fought out of it. They fought to the very end. We needed that win."

Closer Eric Cox was forced to go four innings for a hard-earned victory, allowing a run on four hits while striking out two, and true freshman left fielder Cam Yuran homered for the second straight day and threw out the potential go-ahead run at the plate to end the top of the 11^th.

"That might be as long as Cox has ever thrown, but he was really good, and I just felt like if he could get through the 11th we had the top of the order coming back up," Strain said.
 
Ralston, Smith and Chase Anderson each had two hits for the Roadrunners. Anderson led off the bottom of the 11^th with a double, then Caleb Albaugh walked ahead of Ralston's game-winning single to left center.
 
Yuran's two-run homer in the sixth tied the game 4-4. Zane Schmidt drove in the Roadrunners' first run with an RBI double, and he scored on a wild pitch.

"We had some really key hits from several different guys, especially the freshman throwing a guy out at the plate and hitting a home run," Strain said.  

MSU Denver starting pitcher Tyler Phillips pitched better than his final line would indicate, taking a two-hit shutout with eight strikeouts into the fifth inning before surrendering four hits and being charged with four runs.
 
MSU Denver plays host to Central Oklahoma in a three-game series that starts Friday at the Assembly Athletic Complex.