Lakewood, COLO – The MSU Denver softball team battled tough with No. 10 Colorado Christian on Friday, but came up short in the doubleheader by finals of 10-2 and 6-5. The Roadrunners record now stands at 24-14 overall and 17-11 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. CCU improves to 38-1 overall, and 28-0 in RMAC play.
Game One: MSU Denver 2, Colorado Christian 10 (5 inn)
Cougars pitcher Felesha Lepenske followed up her Thursday performance with another solid outing on Friday, this time holding MSU Denver to just two runs on three hits in five innings, while striking out seven. Lepenske remained undefeated on the season at 15-0.
The Roadrunners took the lead in the top of the first inning on
Cheyenne Prieto's seventh home run on the season. But the second run wouldn't come until the fifth inning when
Miranda McCoy connected on her first career collegiate home run.
Colorado Christian broke open the game in the fourth inning scoring five runs, with three of those runs driven in by Leah Garcia on a home run. The Cougars would finish with 10 runs on 10 hits.
Natalie Romero struggled from the circle for the Roadrunners giving up six earned runs in three-and-two-thirds innings pitched while walking four batters. She took the loss and dropped to 10-7 in 2026.
Game Two: MSU Denver 5, Colorado Christian 6
Trinity Kennemer homered twice in the finale of the series, but CCU would edge out the visiting Roadrunners by a final of 6-5.
Natalie Shellhorn drove in two runs in the second inning to give her team the early 2-1 advantage. Both McCoy and
Brooklyn Enny scored on Shellhorn's single to right center. But RBI doubles by Kat Hanson and Peyton Marvel would allow the home team to snag the lead back at 3-2.
But MSU Denver would respond right back. Prieto, the RMAC's leader in batting average, would come through in the fourth inning driving in
Lexi Gephart on a single to left center. Then Kennemer would smash her fourth home run on the season to put her team up 4-3 after the fifth inning.
After Hanson sent a two-run home run out of the park to give the Cougars the 5-4 lead in the sixth, Kennemer would send out her fifth round tripper of the season tying the game at five apiece in the top of the seventh.
But Marvel would be the hero for Colorado Christian dropping a single to left center field in the bottom of the seventh, driving in the winning run to give her team the 4-0 series win.
Kianna Butler lost just her third game of her freshman season going the distance giving up six runs, with just three of those earned, while striking out three Cougars.
MSU Denver will return home next Friday and Saturday to take on the Rangers from Regis University to continue RMAC play. Friday the program will celebrate Military Appreciation Day, while it will also be Alumni Weekend both days. Keep up with all the events on our social media sites and at Roadrunners Athletics.com.
