DENVER – After a huge weekend series in which it earned a split with national top 10 foe Colorado Mesa, the MSU Denver baseball team has no intention of resting on its laurels.
 
"I was interested to see how they would react coming back to practice," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "But it's pretty much status quo. It's a group of guys that knows they're talented and they expect to win. They're back to work. They understand it's just one series.
 
"Every week we tell them, whatever happened last week, good or bad, it's over. We have to stay focused."
 
This weekend, the Roadrunners (23-15 overall, 12-8 and tied for third in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) travel to Adams State for a four-game series. First-pitch times are set for 2 p.m. Thursday, noon Friday (doubleheader) and noon Sunday.
 
The Grizzlies are 6-24 overall and 3-13 for last in the nine-team RMAC, but are still the kind of team that can give opponents trouble.
 
"They're playing well," Strain said. "Record-wise I know they aren't where they want to be, but they've played a lot of teams tough and just haven't been able to come out on top. We need to be ready to play. They're playing well and they've got some good arms. It's going to be a good challenge for us to stay focused and go down there on the road and play well."
 
One Roadrunner who may be brimming with confidence while also having no intention of resting on his past accomplishments is right fielder Ross Smith. Smith mashed a school record four homers in Sunday's 10-9 win over Colorado Mesa, but hasn't changed his persona.
 
"That's just kind of who he is," Strain said.
 
If teams didn't have a couple of extra paragraphs in the scouting report on the Roadrunners' cleanup hitter before last weekend, then they do now. But pitching around him is easier said than done.
 
"The fortunate thing for him is that there's a lot of good bats in front of him, and a lot of good bats behind him," Strain said.
 
With 70 homers in 38 games, MSU Denver is on pace to break the school home run record for the third full season in a row – and do it before the final weekend of the regular season.
 
MSU Denver, which had 79 homers in 2019 and 81 last year, is on pace for 92, assuming it plays at least two postseason games.
 
And while Smith has 14 homers, Bill Ralston (batting ahead of Smith in the order) has 17 – already tied for the second-highest total in program history.
 
Speaking of home runs leads us back to this weekend's series in Alamosa, Colo.
 
"It's always interesting there," Strain said. "The wind is usually blowing, but sometimes it blows in and sometimes it blows out. It can definitely affect the game one way or the other. Obviously it's at high elevation and pitchers need to keep the ball down. As an offense we need to take advantage of balls we can drive."