PUEBLO, Colo. (February 8, 2015) ~ Jordan Godman (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev.) led off the bottom of the eighth inning with his first homerun of the season to break a 1-1 tie as the Colorado State University Pueblo baseball team downed Montana State University Billings, 2-1, Sunday at Rawlings Field.

The victory gives the ThunderWolves (3-1) the series win over the Yellow Jackets (1-3). The Pack have now won their season-opening series in back-to-back seasons.

After the two teams combined for 56 runs in the first three games of the series, Sunday's contest featured a pitching and defensive dual.

The Yellow Jackets tallied the first run of the game after Kevin Toon recorded a two-out RBI single to put the visitors on top, 1-0.

The one run was all MSU Billings registered as ThunderWolves' starter Victor Soto (Sr., Benbrook, Texas) shut down the Yellow Jackets' offense. After working out of a bases-loaded jam in the third inning, Soto settled in and only allowed two hits over his final three innings of work. The preseason all-conference selection tossed six innings, gave up seven hits and one run, while walking two and striking out four batters on the day.

CSU-Pueblo pushed across its first run of the contest in the fourth inning. Dominick Bregar (Jr., Pueblo, Colo.) singled with one out and Mike Wagner (Golden, Colo.) and Shane Fessel (Jr., Aurora, Colo.) each followed with walks to load the bases. The next batter, Manny Menocal (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev.), bounced out to third base, but Bregar raced home on the play to score the tying run.

The scored remained tied at one apiece until the bottom of the eighth inning when Godman launched the game-winning homerun to give the ThunderWolves the ultimate winning score of 2-1.  

Tyler Rich (Jr., Colton, Calif.) tossed two perfect innings to earn his first win of the season. The ThunderWolves' bullpen of Rich, Kevin Megyeri (R-So., Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Daniel Tessone (Jr., La Habra, Calif.) combined to throw three innings and gave up just one hit, while walking no batters.

Lee Bustow took the loss for the Yellow Jackets to drop to 0-2 on the season.

The Pack were limited to just four hits, with Bregar recording two of the base knocks. Trevor Nix had a game-high three hits for MSU Billings. The visitors tallied eight hits total.

CSU-Pueblo remains at home next weekend, playing host to Nebraska Kearney in a three-game set. The series opens Friday at 1 p.m. at Rawlings Field.

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As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Colorado State University – Pueblo competes in 22 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.