DENVER – With the second seed for the RMAC Tournament secured, the MSU Denver softball team is starting to click on all cylinders again.
And that includes having the right arm of
Audrey Burt at full strength.
Burt pitched a complete-game victory in the opener Saturday as the Roadrunners wrapped up the regular season with a doubleheader sweep of New Mexico Highlands, 3-1 and 7-5, at the Assembly Athletic Complex.
"I'm feeling really good," Burt said. "I kind of struggled this year, so it's really nice to be able to end the season the way I am right now. I'm feeling good heading into the conference tournament."
Burt, 8-10 with a 3.59 ERA for the season, is 3-0 with a 1.02 ERA over her last four starts. She was in control for most of Friday's opening game before Highlands rallied to win against Burt and the bullpen.
She stayed in control Saturday.
"It's a big deal to have all our pitchers throwing 100 percent," outfielder
Shelby Robb said. "She can do really good things and she knows it, and she's ready for it. To have her where she's at right now is going to be huge for us going into the conference tournament."
Burt, who was 12-8 with four saves and a 3.76 ERA as a freshman last season, struck out eight in 6 1/3 innings while giving up three runs Friday. On Saturday she fanned just three, but allowed one run on six hits.
"Audrey was really sharp today," MSU Denver coach
Annie Van Wetzinga said. "Yesterday I didn't think she was as sharp, but she worked through it – which is a big part of pitching. But to be sharp on day two, that's cool to be able to come back and do that."
In the opener,
Jaiden Geist put the Roadrunners ahead 1-0 with a fourth-inning triple and then scored on
Miah Hartvigsen's single. Geist later drove in the game's final run with an RBI single in the sixth.
In the second game, the Roadrunners jumped on Highlands with five first-inning runs, highlighted by
Katie Maney's three-run, fly-ball double.
Aaliyah Arellano had two hits and drove in a run, and Robb had two hits, including her second double of the day.
"Our goal is always to score in the first inning, and it doesn't matter how," Robb said. "It may not always go according to plan and it may not always look pretty, but we just want to get a job done some how. We were able to do that and that was a big deal."
MSU Denver won a closely-contested race for second place in the RMAC and the first-round bye that comes with it, finishing 33-20 overall and 29-13 in league play. The Roadrunners are set to play the winner of a first-round game between third-seeded Regis (31-23, 28-16) and sixth-seeded Chadron State (27-24, 25-19) at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The six-team, double-elimination RMAC Tournament will be played in Lakewood, Colo., and will be hosted by regular-season champion Colorado Christian (52-4, 42-2). The other qualifiers are fourth-seeded Colorado Mesa (28-21, 26-15) and fifth-seeded Colorado School of Mines (25-24, 24-16).
The Roadrunners had slipped to fourth place two weekends ago after losing 11 of 14 games, but regrouped with a sweep of Regis before winning three of four this weekend.
"Starting last weekend against Regis, we didn't let anything from the previous weekends affect us," Robb said. "None of that mattered because we still had a job to get done, so look ahead and not back. It helped put us in a good place, to get second and go into the tournament strong."
