TYLER, Texas – The No. 13 Colorado Mesa baseball team used strong pitching, timely hitting and solid defense to defeat the MSU Denver Roadrunners 5-2 in the opening round of the NCAA South Central Region No. 2 Tournament at Irwin Field on Thursday (May 15) afternoon.
The Mavericks got things going in the first inning as
Cameron Cartwright continued his onslaught of opposing pitchers with an RBI double that brought home
Paul Schoenfeld who led off with a single.
The score remained 1-0 until the fourth inning when the Roadrunners evened things up. Colorado Mesa answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a sacrifice fly by
Paul Schoenfeld which brought home
Stevenson Reynolds for the 2-1 lead.
MSU Denver evened things back up in the top half of the fifth inning before Colorado Mesa would take the lead for good in the bottom half.
TJ Rheem grounded out to first base which brought in Cartwright for the 3-2 lead. They tacked on an extra run on a RBI single up the middle by
Ethan Ezor to make it 4-2.
Colorado Mesa picked up their final insurance run in the bottom of the seventh on a
Kennedy Hara RBI single that scored pinch runner
Jackson Helberg from third.
Hara and
Ethan Nunez each had three hits in the game while
Cameron Cartwright went 2-for-4 to raise his average to .470.
Senior righthander
Jordan Pace took the ball game one and gave the Mavericks exactly what they needed. He allowed two runs on eight scattered hits and struck out two in four and a third innings of work. He was knocked out of the game in the fifth on a come backer that ricocheted off his shin with the out being recorded.
Cayden Clark entered the game after that with runners on but both would be left stranded after back-to-back groundouts. Clark wound up getting the win in relief as he pitched two shutout innings and allowed just three hits to move his record to 2-1 on the year.
Clark exited with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh and in would come
Tristan Wolf. The senior inherited the bases loaded and was able to induce a fly out and a lineout to preserve the lead. Wolf allowed just one hit in an inning and two-thirds of work.
JJ Almeda came on to pitch the ninth and earned his fifth save of the season as he struck out the final batter of the game.
It was the two teams eighth time playing each other in exactly two weeks with Colorado Mesa now owning a 6-2 advantage.
Colorado Mesa will now head to a best-of-three series with the host UT Tyler Patriots beginning at 6pm MDT on Friday. The two teams will also play on Saturday at 2pm MDT with the if necessary game to follow at 6pm MDT.
Note: The MSU Denver Roadrunners were eliminated in the 7pm game as they fell 12-3 to the host UT Tyler Patriots.
