DENVER – MSU Denver returns to the Assembly Athletic Complex for a four-game baseball series against Sioux Falls (S.D.).
 
At 3-4, the Roadrunners are looking to establish some momentum.
 
"We've got to get ourselves on a roll," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "We have 11 games left before we go into our conference season, and we have to play well and win some games, and most importantly we have to find roles for our guys. We need to settle on our starters, our bullpen guys and our starting lineup."
 
Sioux Falls, picked to finish 10^th in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, will be playing its first games of the season. The Cougars were 15-35 last year, including an 0-2 record against MSU Denver in neutral-site competition. Sioux Falls won one of four games against the Roadrunners in Denver early in the 2022 campaign.
 
"They always play us tough," Strain said. "They're always scrappy. They have a lot of offense back, but hardly any pitching back, so we'll have a good scouting report on their hitters but we'll have to figure it out as we go against their pitchers."
 
Games start at noon each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a doubleheader on Saturday.
 
Strain is looking for his offense to break out.
 
Though not expected to mash like last year's unit that led Division II in runs per game (11.2), doubles (168) and slugging percentage (.627) while ranking second in homers (115) and batting average (.357), Strain is still looking for more from All-Americans Zach Schuler, Jake Williams and Cam Yuran while a number of new players are finding their footing.
 
"Our main guys, our All-Americans, haven't played to that yet," Strain said. "And for the new guys in the lineup, you need your dudes to be dudes to take the pressure off the new guys. They're the ones who should be leading us. The new guys are talented, but they're just trying to find themselves."
 
Once that comes together, the Roadrunners want to establish their offensive identity.
 
"We've got to get back to being scrappy, tough outs – arrogant hitters," Strain said. "We have to have the confidence that if we give up three runs, we're going to go score four. That's been the mentality here the past few years."
 
Strain is juggling his starting pitching rotation, with reigning region pitcher of the week Jack Slominski moving to game one of the series, Reichle Arcilise returning to the rotation for the first time this season, Brad Helton making his third start, and Dylan Webber getting his first.
 
He's also looking for more consistency from his bullpen. The Roadrunners have led by at least four runs in all four games they've lost.
 
"You can always say, 'We could've won this one, could've one that one,'" Strain said. "But really, we should have won all seven. So that's frustrating. Our defense has been good. But our bullpen obviously hasn't been very good, and the offense has had chances to expand leads and we just haven't done it."