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UCCS Athletics

Rumsey, Samorano
Isaiah J. Downing

PREVIEW | Mountain Lions Travel South for Steel & Silver Showdown against CSU Pueblo

4/26/2022 2:00:00 PM

By: Eric Mason - Sports Information Director
This Week's Matchup
University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball (17-25, 12-12 RMAC) marches into Pueblo weekend where the Mountain Lions will take on Colorado State University of Pueblo in a four-game set with series set to begin on Friday, Apr. 29 at 7 p.m. for Pack the park at Runyon Field. The series in Pueblo, Colo. will continue Saturday with a 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. doubleheader at Rawlings Field as game four will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 1.
 
Game Coverage
Live Stream: https://www.rmacnetwork.com/gomountainlions/
Live Stats: https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?t=1&gid=csup
 
Last Time Out
  • UCCS bagged their second straight series win of the season by winning three out of four against Adams State University last weekend.
  • The Mountain Lions faced off in a pair of doubleheader games on Saturday and Sunday with both days beginning with a 13-12 Mountain Lion win.
  • In game one on Saturday, UCCS came back from a 3-1 deficit to put up an eight-spot in the fifth inning as Aaron Faragallah took the game over by going 4-for-6 with his second grand slam of the season as the senior tallied four RBI in the win.
  • Game two was out of the ordinary for the Mountain Lion offense as they fell to ASU 2-6 with Faragallah tallying his fifth RBI on the day with a solo home run as Walker Rumsey claimed the second UCCS run with an RBI double to right center.
  • On Sunday, UCCS pulled off the late game comeback as they were down 10-6 heading into the seventh and revived their offense by scoring 10 runs in the final three innings to record the 13-12 win. Five different Mountain Lions registered a multi-RBI game as Tyler Richardson came away with a team high three RBI after finishing 3-for-5 with two doubles.
  • UCCS carried the offensive momentum into game two by downing the Grizzlies 11-3 with RMAC Pitcher of the Week Evan Langston throwing an impressive three-hit complete game. Redshirt freshman Kasey Campbell carried over his hot bat from game one by going 3-for-4 with three RBI as he hit his second home run of the day. Kit Wigington also had a game by belting two home runs and going a perfect 4-for-4 that included three RBI and a game high four runs.
 
RMAC Standings
  • The Mountain Lions move up once again in the conference standings by taking the No. 5 spot with Colorado Mesa University (31-9, 18-6 RMAC), MSU Denver (27-15, 16-8 RMAC), CSU Pueblo (24-18, 15-9 RMAC), and Regis (24-21-1, 17-11 RMAC) filling out the top-four spots, respectively.
  • Rounding out 6-10 is Colorado School of Mines (26-15, 11-13 RMAC), Colorado Christian (13-28, 9-15 RMAC), New Mexico Highlands (15-31, 10-18 RMAC), and Adams State (7-31, 4-12 RMAC).
 
The Series
  • The all-time series is tight between UCCS and CSU Pueblo with the Mountain Lions holding the advantage at a record of 8-7 with a two-game winning streak.
 
Scouting CSU Pueblo
  • The ThunderWolves (24-18, 15-9 RMAC) have won four out of their last five games and recently took three out of four games for the series win over Colorado Christian last weekend.
  • CSU Pueblo have been one of the top teams in the conference in finding their way on base as the ThunderWolves' offense is hitting .331 (third in RMAC) and have drawn 174 walks (second in RMAC) with 74 hit by pitches (second in RMAC). Their ability to get on base frequently results in the second highest on-base percentage in the conference (.426) as they've also recorded an RMAC high 31 sacrifice bunts (11th in DII) and the RMAC's second most sacrifice flies (22) to help contribute 8.4 runs per game (third in RMAC).
  • Junior infielder Reggie Williams sits atop the lineup with a team high .401 batting average having hit 11 doubles and two home runs for 28 RBI, while also leading the conference with 31 drawn walks. His on-base percentage of .520 is third amongst conference individuals as Williams carries a 16-game hitting streak and 30-game streak of reaching base safely.
  • CSU Pueblo's top baserunner in Trey Vasquez leads a ThunderWolves team that is tied for second in the RMAC in stolen bases (51) by swiping 11 bases on 13 attempts as the redshirt junior owns 47 RBI on a .347 average that includes eight doubles, team high five triples, and six home runs.
  • Providing the power is senior Ty Lewis with 49 RBI (T-6th in RMAC) as the Utah native has hit nine home runs and 12 doubles to contribute towards a batting average of .343 and OPS of 1.070.
  • The ThunderWolves pitching staff has two key starters in their rotation with Zach Pratt (3-1) and Tim McIntyre (7-1) combining for an impressive 10-2 record. Pratt owns the lowest ERA out of the team starters at 4.37 with a team low 1.40 WHIP as the sophomore has limited opponents to a .216 average in eight appearances, seven starts, and 35.0 innings pitched. McIntyre has gone right after opposing hitters by coming in with a team high 41 strikeouts while only allowing five walks for a walks allowed per nine innings average of 0.75 that ranks first in the RMAC and second in Division II. The senior holds a 6.15 ERA with 10 starts in 11 appearances while tossing 60.0 innings for the season.

Hot Takes
  • Having won the last seven out of their last eight games, UCCS has bumped their batting average up to .317 and are now averaging 7.8 runs per game for the fifth highest scoring offense in the RMAC.
  • In the span of the last eight games, the Mountain Lions are batting an impressive .394 and have scored 103 runs for an average of 12.87 runs per game.
  • The Mountain Lions ability to hit for extra bases has been exceptional this season with UCCS boasting the third highest slugging percentage in the RMAC (.531) that is backed by the most doubles in all of DII (118), 57 home runs, and 11 triples.   
  • UCCS has launched at least one home run in nine straight games while registering two or more doubles in nine of the last 10 games.
  • Redshirt freshman Kit Wigington has continued to swing a hot bat by batting .431 (third in RMAC) with an average of 1.70 hits per game (ninth in DII) and 0.42 doubles per game (third in RMAC) while working to the sixth best slugging percentage in the conference (.754).
  • Garnering a stellar OPS of 1.089 with a team leading 14 home runs and 51 RBI is redshirt freshman Caleb Stubbings who is third in the conference in RBI per game (1.42) and fifth in home runs per game (0.39).
  • Freshman Macully Sehr has been red hot at the plate in his 25 games played as the starting infielder has recorded one or more hits in 19 of 24 games for a .386 average while driving in 15 RBI in the last eight games and reaching base safely in 17 consecutive games.
  • Fellow redshirt Kasey Campbell registered a strong Sunday performance by going 6-for-9 in the doubleheader against ASU with two home runs, one double, and five RBI.
  • Evan Langston moved to a perfect 3-0 on the year after his impressive complete game outing on Sunday as the freshman owns the lowest team ERA at 4.78 with a 1.56 WHIP in 11 appearances and two starts. Langston is also holding the opposition to a team low batting average of .268 through 32 innings of work.
  • Jonathan Cowles currently registers the RMAC's second-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.00, 11th best in DII) and walks allowed per nine innings (1.23, 19th in DII). His team high 56 strikeouts is the eighth most in the conference as the graduate student moved to 5-5 on the year.   
 
Award Winners
The Mountain Lions landed 15 student-athletes on the RMAC All-Academic team with Kit Wigington earning first team honors and Morgan Altherr, Jonathan Cowles, Zac Dammel, Joseph Harris, Nate Heflebower, Matt Johnson, Dylan Morace, Cole Philip, Tyler Richardson, Walker Rumsey, Henry Ryan, JJ Rytz, Kiichi Sato, and Jon Sotto all earning. RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll.
 
UCCS also notched their second consecutive conference weekly award as Evan Langston was voted RMAC Pitcher of the Week.
 
UCCS Under Head Coach Dave Hajek
  • Dave Hajek, who led UCCS to its first RMAC championship in program history, is in his sixth season as the Head Coach of the University of Colorado Colorado Springs baseball program in 2022. He's coached the only MLB Draft pick in Zach Hall and the only All-Americans in Matt McDermott, Matt Clarke, Jake Anderson, and Evan Richards.
  • In six seasons, Hajek holds a .544 winning percentage with a 131-114 overall record that includes, four RMAC Tournament appearances, one RMAC Tournament Championship, a 5-7 RMAC Tournament record, and one NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
Upcoming Games
  • UCCS Baseball will wrap up the regular season at home next weekend by hosting Colorado School of Mines in a four-game set that is split with a 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. doubleheader on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7.
 
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. 
 
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