ALVA, Okla. – After letting a second straight game slip away in the ninth inning in Saturday's opener, Zach Schuler and the rest of the MSU Denver baseball team left nothing to chance in the nightcap as they salvaged the final game of the three-game series with a 9-3 victory over Northwestern Oklahoma State.
 
"I'm proud of the team for bouncing back like that," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "That's about as big of a gut punch as you can take, when you are in control and feeling good for two straight games and wind up losing them both, and then turn around and play again 30 minutes later.
 
"That was a big win. It shows some character. We should've won all three games, but we saw some growth. We've got a lot of guys who can play and some new arms who threw well. You'd like to win a series on the road, but maybe we'll get a game or two back down the road."
 
Schuler, 2-for-3 with a double, homer and three RBIs in the 6-5 first-game loss, was 3-for-5 with two homers and five RBIs in the second game, and finished the series 7-for-12 (.583) with three homers and 11 RBIs.
 
"Zach swung the bat really well, obviously," Strain said. "He was a force for us."
 
After wasting strong starting pitching by Brad Helton in the opener, the Roadrunners got another solid start in the second game as Jack Slominski worked five innings, allowing one run on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
 
Northwestern Oklahoma State hit a two-run homer in the eighth, but Brayden Brooks came on to seal things – all five outs Brooks recorded were on strikeouts.
 
"We had some really good pitching performances, and those starts in particular were very good," Strain said. "Brooks did a nice job of shutting the door. We're still trying to figure out the back end of our bullpen after having (all times saves leader Eric) Cox back there for so long. It's hard to get those final few outs, especially on the road."
 
The Rangers scored a first-inning run, but MSU Denver responded with two in the second on an RBI double by Gavin Schmeh and a run-scoring triple by Brooks Rasmussen.
 
Schuler took over the middle portion of the game, hitting a two-run homer in the third, adding an RBI groundout in the fifth, then clubbing a two-run homer in the seventh.
 
Leading 7-3 in the ninth, Jayden Cordova and Schmeh drove in runs with a single and groundout, respectively.
 
Jake Williams was 3-for-4 and scored three runs.
 
In the opener, Helton allowed one run on four hits, with one walk and seven strikeouts, in an outstanding six-inning start.
 
Schuler hit a solo homer in the fifth inning for the game's first run, then Cam Yuran's
RBI double in the sixth made it 2-0.
 
The lead grew to 4-0 on Schuler's two-run double in the sixth, and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Graham in the ninth made it 5-3.
 
But ultimately MSU Denver was unable to hang on.