PUEBLO, Colo. (May 1, 2022) – Colorado State University Pueblo baseball celebrated Jacob Garcia, Ty Lewis, Tim McIntyre, Jeron Petterson, Johnathan Ramirez, Matt Shea and Manny Sierra prior to the ThunderWolves' Senior Day home-season finale with UCCS. The Pack (26-20, 17-11 RMAC) fell to the Mountain Lions (19-27, 14-14 RMAC) 10-5 in the final home game of the season Sunday afternoon.
 
The Pack started off in good shape, with an efficient start from Jake Lombardelli on the mound. Lombardelli walked his first two batters, but settled in and struck out the next three batters in the opening inning. The redshirt junior cruised thru the second and set the Pack up for success at the plate.
 
Trey Vasquez started the inning with a double off the left center wall and was soon batted home off a Ty Lewis double to left. Jacob Federico put the Pack on top 2-0 after a single was able to score Lewis from second. The Pack loaded the bases but crafty pitching got UCCS out of the inning and CSU Pueblo had to settle with two runs.
 
The third saw UCCS take a temporary 4-2 lead after a big inning that was topped off by a homer. The ThunderWolves were able to respond and refused to yield despite the big half inning by the Mountain Lions.
 
Brady Prewitt kicked it off with a double down the leftfield line and was soon scored off a Lewis sacrifice fly to deep centerfield. Matt Shea followed up with a single and got to third off a stolen base and throwing error to get into scoring position for Kysen Howard. The freshman came through for the Pack and blasted his second home run of the series with a well-struck homer over the leftfield wall.  
 
The three-run inning gave the Pack and Lombardelli a 5-4 lead after three innings of play. Lombardelli was able to maintain the one-run lead thru the fifth and left the game with the Pack ahead 5-4. Lombardelli's five inning start featured six strikeouts, the second most recorded by the hurler this season.
 
UCCS squeezed off two runs in the top of the sixth and put the Pack back on the defensive, trailing 6-5. Unfortunately, the Pack were unable to find an answer and the Mountain Lions piled on three more runs to put the ThunderWolves in a 9-5 hole.
 
An error allowed the Mountain Lions to score another run in the eighth, but Johnathan Ramirez got the Pack out of a jam with back-to-back strikeouts. The 10-5 deficit was too much for the Pack to overcome though, and CSU Pueblo fell to the scrappy UCCS squad.
 
CSU Pueblo was led by the middle of the lineup, as Noah Hennings, Prewitt, Vasquez, Lewis, Shea and Howard each tallied a hit in the 2-7 slots. Howard and Lewis each notched two RBIs while Federico accounted for the other. 
 
The Pack close out the home slate with a 15-13 record at Rawlings Field and Runyon Field. The Pack will close out their 2022 regular season with a four-game series at Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction, Colo. beginning May 5. Colorado Mesa sits atop the conference standings while CSU Pueblo stands in third, two games out of first place.