GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The top-ranked Colorado Mesa baseball team survived the long ball barrage of the MSU Denver Roadrunners in a 20-10 win on Friday (May 12) afternoon to advance to the championship game of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament at The Diamond at the Bus Bergman Sports Complex.
 
Colorado Mesa got multi-hit games from leadoff man Robert Sharrar, Julian Boyd, Conrad Villafuerte, and Harrison Rodgers.
 
Rodgers finished with just two hits but they were two enormous hits. The junior got the Mavericks on the board in the first inning as he belted a three-run, oppo-taco home run to put Colorado Mesa up 3-0 early.
 
Then, with the game tied at 10-10 in the fifth inning and the bases loaded, Rodgers stepped up to the plate. He fell behind 1-2 in the count before sending the next pitch over the scoreboard in right center field for a grand slam giving the Mavericks a 14-10 lead they would not relinquish. Rodgers finished the game with 2-for-6 with two runs scored and seven runs driven in.
 
Senior Conrad Villafuerte finished the game 4-for-6 with three runs scored and five runs driven in. The Fountain Valley, Calif native hit a three-run double in the second and a two-run single in the sixth inning.
 
Julian Boyd and Robert Sharrar set the table for Villafuerte and Rodgers as they combined to go 6-for-10 with seven runs scored and two runs driven in. Boyd was able to steal a base in the game and is now one shy of tying the Mavericks single season stolen base record of 36.
 
Third baseman Caleb Thomason hit his fifth home run of the season in the bottom of the third inning that gave the Mavericks an 8-2 lead at the time.
 
The Mavericks survived the air-raid barrage of MSU Denver as the Roadrunners pounded out five home runs with nine of their ten runs coming off the big fly. But the CMU pitching staff settled down and were able to put up four consecutive shutout innings to finish the game.
 
Bridger Clontz came in for the fifth inning and immediately gave up a home run before retiring three of the next four batters he faced. He earned the win in relief to move to 2-0 while going two innings and allowing just the one run on three hits, walked one and struck out three.
 
Clontz gave way to Cade Nicol who earned the save by pitching three innings of perfect baseball while striking out five in the process. It was his first save of the season.
 
Colorado Mesa will play in the championship game tomorrow at 1:00pm against the winner of tonight's game between MSU Denver and the winner of the Regis and CSU Pueblo game this afternoon.