COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball team drops both games of the Saturday doubleheader against the Metropolitan State University Denver Roadrunners with game one featuring extra innings and game two favoring the visitors.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: Game 1: UCCS 14, MSUD 19 | Game 2: UCCS 2, MSUD 16
Records: UCCS (8-17, 4-7 RMAC), MSUD (19-10, 10-5 RMAC)
Facility: Mountain Lion Park | Colorado Springs, Colo.
All-Time Series: Two losses today brings the Mountain Lion record against the Roadrunners to 8-14 and have now lost five straight in the history of the matchup.
HOW IT HAPPENED | GAME 1
- The bats came out hot for the Roadrunners with three consecutive hits to open the game, including a homerun to right-center. The hits would keep coming as they jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
- The Mountain Lions were able to respond quickly as Jaeden Hegmann drove an outside pitch to right-center that flew over the wall for a two-run homerun. Caleb Stubbings stepped up to the plate not much later and took the MSUD pitcher deep for a solo shot to bring the Mountain Lion run total to three.
- With Luis Samorano standing on third base in the bottom of the second, Tyler Richardson poked one through the left side to score Samorano which cut the MSUD lead to 7-4.
- Stubbings would come up again in the bottom of the third and delivered with a double down the left field line. He would come around to score on a wild pitch to score the fifth run for the Mountain Lions. Samorano would later drive in Faragallah from third after he laced a double into the right-center gap to bring the score to a 7-6 Roadrunner advantage.
- The doubles parade would continue for the Mountain Lions after MSUD brought in a reliever. Tyler Richardson brought in the tying run with a two-bagger over the left fielder's head.
- To add to an already impressive offensive outburst in the inning, Kiichi Sato smoked the first pitch he saw over the left-center wall for a three-run shot that gave the Mountain Lions the 10-7 lead going into the fourth.
- After tying the game at 10 in the top of the fourth, the Mountain Lions were able to break the tie after Samorano drove in Stubbings to put the Mountain Lions up by one going into the fifth.
- Dylan Grierson came in relief in the fourth and came back out for fifth and retired the side in order to keep the Mountain Lions ahead 11-10.
- The Roadrunners would take the lead back and go ahead 14-10 in the top of the sixth. The Mountain Lions battled back as Aaron Faragallah hit a solo homerun and Luis Samorano drove in yet another run with a double in the gap.
- Down one run in the bottom of the seventh, Hegmann drew a lead-off walk to put the tying run on first base. Dylan Morace then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Hegmann into scoring position. With two outs and Faragallah up at bat, the Mountain Lion right fielder hit a double that sliced away from the Roadrunner right fielder that scored Hegmann easily and tied the game. No more runs would cross and the game would go to extra innings.
- With one out in the top of the eighth, Brock Weiss came in relief and forced a fly out to center fielder Luis Samorano. The runner on second base would attempt to tag up but was unsuccessful as a brilliant relay throw from Macully Sehr nabbed the runner at third to end the inning with the game still tied at 14-14.
- A five run ninth inning put the Roadrunners up 19-14, a lead they would hold onto to get the win in game one of the doubleheader over the Mountain Lions.
STATS FROM THE GAME | GAME 1
- Both Luis Samorano and Jaeden Hegmann had four-hit games today. Caleb Stubbings and Aaron Faragallah also had great days at the plate with both Mountain Lion batters recording three-hit games.
- Four homeruns were hit by UCCS coming off the bats of Kiichi Sato, Hegmann, Stubbings, and Faragallah.
- Samorano and Stubbings both recorded multiple extra base hits with Samorano finding the gaps twice for two doubles while Stubbings added a double to his day at the plate along with his first inning homerun.
- Joseph Harris had another good outing on the mound coming in relief. He escaped a couple of jams and limited damage by not allowing any runs to score in his 1.2 innings of work.
HOW IT HAPPENED | GAME 2
- It was another hot start for the Roadrunners as their leadoff batter took the second pitch of the game out to right field for a solo homerun to take the early 1-0 lead.
- The MSUD lead would not last long as Kit Wigington found his way on with a single to the left side followed by a line drive homerun to right field off the stick of Caleb Stubbings to put the Mountain Lions up 2-1 in the first inning.
- The Roadrunners fought back no more than an inning later and added three runs to their total to get back on top and would score two more in the third.
- The Mountain Lion offense would be quiet throughout the game as MSUD continued to pile on with the scoreboard reading 16-2 in favor of the Roadrunners after the bottom of the sixth inning.
- After Braden Barker worked a scoreless top half of the seventh inning, the Mountain Lions got traffic on the bases with no outs, but could not capitalize on the opportunity and fell to the Roadrunners in game two of the Saturday doubleheader.
STATS FROM THE GAME | GAME 2
- Mason Pastorello swung the bat well in the leadoff spot as he collected two hits in three at-bats, one of his hits being a double.
- Caleb Stubbings stays hot at the dish as he added another homerun to his season total with a two-run shot in the first inning. His blast would count for the only two runs of the game for the Mountain Lions.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Caleb Stubbings' solo homerun in game one was his sixth of the year with his two-run shot in game two being his seventh. He came into today leading the team in homeruns and continues to hold that lead.
- Kiichi Sato hit his first homerun of the season in game one of the doubleheader today.
- In game one of the doubleheader, Luis Samorano recorded four hits, the most he has had in a single game in his Mountain Lion career.
- The Roadrunners appear to have the Mountain Lions' number as they have now scored 60 runs against UCCS in three games this season.
- Mason Pastorello now has three consecutive multi-hit games.
- Caleb Stubbings extends his hit streak to six games. He has driven in 12 runs in that span.
UP NEXT
- The Mountain Lions close the home series with MSUD tomorrow afternoon, March 27th, with first pitch scheduled for 12:00 p.m.
SOCIAL:
Twitter – @GoMountainLions
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Facebook – Go Mountain Lions
As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 16 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.
