DENVER – MSU Denver wraps up the non-conference portion of its baseball schedule this weekend, facing a pair of North Dakota teams at the Assembly Athletic Complex.
The Roadrunners (7-8) squaring off against Minot State in a noon doubleheader on Friday before playing Mary in a single game Saturday at noon.
"We played Minot a couple of years ago and they had a good pitching staff, and they have good arms who are pitching well," MSU Denver coach
Ryan Strain said. "And Mary continues to get better. I know they have quite a few Colorado guys who are going to be excited to play down here. Both these teams will be a challenge for us."
Minot State (2-6) is picked to finish seventh in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference after going 29-19 overall and 20-14 for sixth place in the league last year. The Beavers played a four-game series earlier this season at Regis, losing three of four.
Mary (3-5) is picked to finish ninth in the NSIC after going 23-27 overall and 16-19 for ninth in the 14-team league last season. The Marauders are coming off a four-game split against league favorite Minnesota State-Mankato.
MSU Denver's expected starting pitching rotation is
Jack Slominski,
Reichle Arcilise and
Brad Helton, with
Dylan Webber shifting to the bullpen for the weekend since there are only three games. Slominski tied the program's single-season win record with nine in 2023, Arcilise is closing in on becoming the program's all-time strikeout leader, and Helton is coming off a seven-inning complete game, one-hit victory.
Meanwhile, the lineup showed greater length last weekend with third baseman
Cal Walsh and left fielder
Andre Chacon stepping forward when getting their chances to make multiple starts. Walsh hadn't played the first three weekends of the season, and Chacon had played only briefly.
"We had some new guys in there play well when they got their opportunity," Strain said. "Hopefully they'll continue to capitalize on it – they've earned the chance. It's a credit to them, because so many kids want the opportunity and when you have a deep roster like we do, it's tough to get guys in there. But neither one of them asked why they weren't playing, they put their heads down and kept playing.
"It was cool in those moments to see them come through. With a roster like ours, the hardest thing to do is write out the lineup, because you know that over half the position players are going to be disappointed that they aren't in there."
MSU Denver is also looking to be at its peak with Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play starting next weekend. League favorite and perennial national-championship contender Colorado Mesa comes to the Assembly Athletic Complex for the opening league series.
"The teams we've played in the non-conference maybe weren't as good last year, but they are playing well this year," Strain said. "Northwestern Oklahoma and Biola are off to great starts, and Montana State-Billings might be the best team we've played and is going to start winning some games. So our strength of schedule is solid, but unfortunately if we had done what we wanted, it wouldn't be quite as good.
"We need to run off some wins."
