DENVER, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball team split Saturday's double-header against Regis University on Regis' Baseball Field with a loss in game one, and a strong win in game two.
In game one, UCCS fell short to Regis at a final score of 2-3 as the Rangers walked it off in the bottom of the seventh.
The Mountain Lions left nine runners on base during game one as they struggled to get runs across. In the third and fifth inning, UCCS had bases loaded but could not execute as they came away empty handed in both innings.
Senior
Colin Cicere got the start in game one and received the no decision as he pitched five innings and allowed one run on three hits. Cicere shutout the Rangers through the first three innings of the ball game with help of his defense, as Regis tried to wave a runner home in the second inning, but
John Mallon fielded a ball cleanly at first and threw out a runner at home to keep the Rangers scoreless.
UCCS was able to establish an early lead for Cicere as the Mountain Lions scored in the first inning with a
Jake Anderson single to left field that scored
Matt Berg from first base, due to an error by the left fielder.
Regis later tied the game up at 1's as the Rangers got the first two batters on base and knocked in a run with a groundball to shortstop that scored a runner from third in the fourth inning.
Entering the bottom of the sixth, Regis took their first lead of the game after a single to left field brought one run in to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Rangers. The Rangers attempted to bring in two runs off the single but Berg held Regis to the one run after throwing out the second runner at home.
Down one run going into the top half of the seventh,
Matthew Clarke led off with a single through the left side to represent the tying run with no outs. Looking to get Clark around,
Dave Hajek signaled for a sacrifice bunt that Berg executed perfectly to third base to place Clarke in scoring position. Anderson then came up to single through the right side to record his second RBI of the day, and finish a perfect 3-for-3 in the game.
With the game tied at 2-2, Regis found the left center gap to place the winning run on second, then followed it up with a single to left field to close out game one of the double-header 3-2.
As for game two, the Mountain Lions came out and flipped the script as they topped the Rangers at a final score of 8-2 to split Saturday's double-header.
UCCS'
Christian Manmano got the ball for game two and ran with it as he gave up two runs, on three hits in 5 1/3 innings of work to grab his third win of the season (3-0). Manmano and the Mountain Lion defense kept the Rangers scoreless for five straight innings to help bag their first win of the series.
The UCCS offense out-hit Regis 16-5 in the game as 15 of the 16 Mountain Lion hits were singles. Anderson picked up right where he left off in game one, as he sent a base hit through the right side to score one run in the third inning and give UCCS a 1-0 lead.
UCCS was not done throwing runs on the board as they scored six runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a commanding 7-0 lead. The six runs were tallied off eight hits (all singles) in the inning, including six consecutive singles to start the inning.
Ryan Schmidt, Mallon,
Matt McDermott, and Berg all recorded an RBI in the sixth as the Mountain Lions batted around to establish the seven-run lead.
After the six-run half inning by UCCS, Regis brought in two runs of their own to cut into the UCCS lead 7-2 in the sixth inning. However, the Mountain Lions answered with another run in the top of the seventh inning as Schmidt recorded his second RBI of the day off a single to left field to score the speedy
Cody Norton.
With Regis leading the series 2-1 going into game four on Sunday, Apr. 14, the Mountain Lions will look to even up the series as first pitch is set for 12 p.m.
