COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. – Late inning heroics from
Aaron Faragallah propels the University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball team to an 8-6 walk-off win on the final game of the series against the visiting Metropolitan State University Denver Roadrunners on Sunday afternoon.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: UCCS 8, MSUD 6
Records: UCCS (9-17, 5-7 RMAC), MSUD (19-11, 10-6 RMAC)
Facility: Mountain Lion Park | Colorado Springs, Colo.
All-Time Series: The Mountain Lions pick up a win and improve to 9-14 all-time against the Roadrunners.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Mountain Lions struck the scoreboard first with three first inning runs. After two consecutive four-pitch walks to get runners on base, Kit Wigington hit a ball through the left side of the infield to score Kiichi Sato from second base on a single. They would scratch two more runs as the starting pitcher for the Roadrunners struggled to find the zone and UCCS took the 3-0 lead.
- Jon Sotto was dominant on the hill through the first five innings by keeping Roadrunner batters off base while getting help from his defense. Dylan Morace made a great running catch to his left in the outfield to end the fourth inning and prevent damage.
- In the bottom of the fifth, Aaron Faragallah drove a hanging curveball into center field for a leadoff single. Walker Rumsey then crushed a pitch off the batter's eye for a stand up double. Faragallah would then score the Mountain Lion's fourth run of the game on a balk by the MSUD pitcher.
- Up four runs in the sixth inning, the Roadrunners fought back with back-to-back homeruns in the top of the sixth that brought the score to a 4-3 Mountain Lion lead.
- John Hoffman came in to relieve Sotto with no outs in the sixth. Hoffman was able to get out of the inning only allowing one more run to cross which tied the game at four apiece.
- Hoffman would come back out and take the mound for the seventh. After surrendering a double to left field, he was able to escape the jam and keep the go-ahead run from scoring as he struck out the Roadrunner designated hitter looking at a curveball breaking into the zone to keep the game tied.
- After the Roadrunners would get traffic on the basepaths in the eighth, Brock Weiss came out of the bullpen, inheriting two runners. The first batter he faced lined one up the middle but found the leather of Macully Sehr who made an incredible leaping catch. He would strike out the next batter to end the inning with the game still tied 4-4.
- The Roadrunners tacked on two runs in the top of the ninth inning to go up 6-4. With a runner on third base and one out in the inning, the MSUD right fielder flew out to Walker Rumsey in center field. The MSUD first baseman tagged up from third base but a beautiful throw from Rumsey nabbed the runner at home to send the game to the bottom of the ninth with the Mountain Lions trailing by two.
- Dylan Morace would lead off for the Mountain Lions and he found his way on base with a single to right field. Kit Wigington was the next batter and he drove a single up the middle. That brought Caleb Stubbings to the plate representing the winning run. He would get hit by a pitch in his at bat to load the bases for Aaron Faragallah.
- Faragallah got ahead in the count quickly as he saw three pitches, all balls. With a 3-0 count and the winning run aboard, Faragallah took a big swing and connected on the next pitch he saw and watched the ball soar far over the batter's eye for a walk-off grand slam to dead center, winning the game for the Mountain Lions with a final score of 8-6.
STATS FROM THE GAME
- Three Mountain Lion batters had multi-hit games today. Kit Wigington led the team in hits with three base knocks in five at-bats with Aaron Faragallah and Dylan Morace collecting two hits of their own.
- Jon Sotto had a good outing today as the Mountain Lion starting pitcher tossed five innings, striking out four batters and allowing only five hits.
- Hunter Owens was strong out of the bullpen for UCCS as he did not allow any runs in his 2.1 innings of work, striking out three, and giving up three hits.
- Aaron Faragallah led the team in RBI with four, all coming off his ninth inning grand slam.
- While eight runs were scored in the game for the Mountain Lions, only six RBI were credited to Mountain Lion batters. The remaining two runs that did not qualify for RBI both crossed home plate on balks.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- With his ninth inning bomb, Aaron Faragallah now has four homeruns on the season. He has hit at least one homerun in each of his last three games.
- Joseph Harris adds to great weekend coming out of the bullpen with 1.2 innings pitched, allowing only one run. On the weekend, he pitched 3.2 innings against the Roadrunners, only allowing the one run.
- A win today gives UCCS a conference record of 5-7. They are now tied for sixth in the RMAC standings with Colorado Christian University.
UP NEXT
- The Mountain Lions will travel to Golden, Colo. for a pod series with Colorado School of Mines and New Mexico Highlands University next weekend. They will matchup with CSM on Friday, April 1st at 4:00 p.m.
SOCIAL:
Twitter – @GoMountainLions
Instagram – @gomountainlions
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.
