Game 1: CSU-Pueblo 11, Metro State 8
Game 2: Metro State 9, CSU-Pueblo 8
DENVER, Colo. - With the Super Bowl just two days away, it
hardly feels like baseball season, but that is what dawned Friday
for CSU-Pueblo's and Metro State's baseball squads as both teams
struggled on the mound and split a pair of seven-inning games.
CSU-Pueblo won the opener 11-8 while Metro State used a walk-off
hit to win the nightcap 9-8.
For CSU-Pueblo, the day featured arms not used to the February
cold, but combined it with hot bats that seemed to be in midseason
form.
The ThunderWolves paraded a total of 10 pitchers to the mound
Friday, giving up 23 hits over two games. The Pack fielders
weren't much help to the fledgling arms, committing three errors in
each game. Metro State was in the same boat, giving up an
identical total of 23 hits and six errors on the day.
The Pack bats, though, needed a bit to warm up, and caught fire
at the close of the first game of the doubleheader.
Aside from putting up one run in the top of the first inning,
CSU-Pueblo failed to push any runners across the plate for four
innings. Then, in the top of the sixth inning and trailing
8-1, the ThunderWolves opened up their offensive game.
The hit parade started with a solo homer by
outfielder Zach Hoffman (Sr.,
Pueblo West, Colo.), who batted cleanup for the Pack
Friday and turned in a combined 4-for-9 performance.
Hoffman's dinger was followed by an ensuing error and walk, and
turned into another run with newcomer Austin Roff (Sr.,
Colorado Springs, Colo.) fired a double into right center
to trim Metro's lead to 8-3. The Pack eventually batted
around the order and put up a five on the Roadrunners in the sixth.
The top of the seventh was a carbon copy of the sixth, as
another double by Roff set off a hit parade that culminated in a
three-run double by Jon Proesl (Sr.,
California City, Colo.) which broke an 8-8 deadlock and
put the Pack into a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
In the second game, the ThunderWolves remained hot, scoring runs
in each of the first three innings and jumping out to a 5-3 lead
after three. However, Metro State enjoyed a three-run fifth
inning a took a 7-5 lead.
CSU-Pueblo, eventually trailing 8-6 in the top of the seventh
inning, rallied thanks to a pair of pinch hit singles by Jerry Salazar
(Sr., Pueblo, Colo.) and Kyle Wager (Jr., Globe,
Ariz.), eventually sending two runs across the plate to go
into the bottom of the 7th tied at 8.
But the Pack saw its rally blow up on its face as two untimely
errors lengthened the inning, and Metro State took advantage.
With two infield errors, a would-be 1-2-3 inning made Metro
State's Everett Altman into a hero, coming through with an RBI
single that handed the 9-8 win to Metro State.
The ThunderWolves and Roadrunners will continue their series in
odd fashion, finishing the final two games Saturday in Pueblo with
a doubleheader. The games are slated for a noon start.
