PUEBLO, Colo. – The No. 19 Colorado Mesa baseball team swept a doubleheader from the home CSU Pueblo ThunderWolves on Friday (Apr. 7) afternoon at Rawlings Field in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action.
In game one, the Mavericks benefited from a pair of CSU Pueblo miscues and got excellent pitching in a 4-3 win in extra innings.
After the ThunderWolves scored three runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning to take the first lead of the game with the Mavericks coming to the plate in the sixth.
Harrison Rodgers reached first on an error by the first baseman followed by a
Robert Sharrar single to left field.
After a fielder's choice ground out,
Conrad Villafuerte stepped to the plate and delivered the game tying home run to left field to knot the score at 3-3 after six innings.
Then in the eighth inning,
Julian Boyd reached on a bunt single and reached second base on a stolen base with two outs in the inning.
Ethan Ezor stepped to the plate and hit what appeared to be a routine fly ball to center field. The ThunderWolf centerfielder lost the ball in the sun and the ball fell for a double and the go-ahead run as Boyd trotted home uncontested.
Sharrar finished the game 2-for-4 while Boyd scored two of the Mavericks four runs.
Starting pitcher
Kannon Handy got the start but didn't factor into the decision after another successful start. He allowed three runs on eight hits, walked three and punched out 10 in five and a third innings of work.
With the then go-ahead runner on third base and one out, he was lifted for reliever
Cooper Vasquez with CSU Pueblo slugger Reggie Williams at the plate.
Vasquez got Williams to strikeout looking on what appeared to be a fastball in the middle section of the plate. He then got the next batter to fly out to right field to end the threat. The Maverick righty would go onto to pitch a clean scoreless seventh and wound up with the win in the game.
He handed the ball off to closer
Anthony Durbano in the eighth where he would pitch a scoreless inning getting one strikeout and his fifth save of the season.
In the nightcap, the Mavericks scored in the first six innings they batted and cruised to a 13-4 win over CSU Pueblo.
Sharrar, Villafuerte and
Stevenson Reynolds all finished with three hits in the game.
Sharrar was 3-for-3 with a triple, a run scored, two walks and three runs driven in while Villafuerte went 3-for-3 with two runs scored, two runs driven in and two walks. Reynolds had a breakout game where he went 3-for-5 with two runs driven in.
Liam Hohenstein got the win and improved to 4-0 on the season. He allowed four runs on six hits, walked one and struck out four in four innings of work.
Bridger Clontz and
Kyle Miller combined to pitch the final three innings and combined to allow just one walk while striking out four in three innings of work.
Colorado Mesa improved to 26-8 on the season and 17-2 in the conference while the ThunderWolves fell to 12-22, 9-10 in the conference. The Mavericks remain three games up on the MSU Denver Roadrunners in the conference standings.
The two teams will conclude the series tomorrow afternoon with a single nine-inning game beginning at Noon.
