PUEBLO, Colo. – Colorado State University Pueblo baseball opened its four-game Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with 19th-ranked Colorado Mesa here Thursday afternoon by suffering a 7-3 setback to the Mavericks at Rawlings Field.
With the loss, the ThunderWolves fall to 12-20 overall on the season and 9-8 in the RMAC, while Mesa improves to 24-8 overall and 15-2 in the RMAC. Thursday's loss the sixth straight loss for the Pack.
The Pack offense was held to just seven hits in the game with six of those hits coming over the final three innings as the Pack had recorded just one hit against Jacob Rhodes in the first six innings, which was a single up the middle in the bottom of the fifth off the bat of sophomore third baseman
Kysen Howard (Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley Northwest).
Senior centerfielder
Noah Hennings (Draper, Utah/Southern Idaho) led the Pack with two hits and scored one of the Pack's three runs, which all came in the seventh and eighth innings.
The Pack defense committed two errors that led to three unearned runs in the game.
Mesa got on the scoreboard in the top of the second on an RBI double by Stevenson Reynolds off of junior
Nick Perry (Denton, Texas/Richland JC), who started Thursday's opener for the Pack.
The Mavs made it 2-0 in the top of the fourth thanks to three hits and a Pack error that led to an unearned run for Mesa.
Mesa used a two-out triple and an RBI double by Conrad Villafunte to push out to a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning.
The Mavs made the score 4-0 on the top of the sixth thanks to a single by Reynolds, a double by Declan Wiesner and an RBI groundout by Jonathon Gonzalez off of sophomore reliever
Frank Wierman (Surprise, Ariz,/Shadow Creek). Wierman replaced Perry after he allowed the double to Wiesner.
Perry (2-3) tossed 5.1 innings and allowed nine hits and four runs (three earned runs), while walking two and striking out six. Perry has now struck out six or more hitters in five of his seven starts this season.
Mesa would add two unearned runs in the seventh after senior leftfielder
Zac Hanenberg (Cañon City, Colo./Cañon City) committed an error as he dropped a fly ball in leftfield hit off the bat Christos Stefanos. The two runs gave Mesa a 6-0 lead.
After being held to just one hit through the first six innings, the Pack offense woke up in the seventh as they scored two runs on two hits to drop Mesa's lead to 6-2. In the inning, senior first baseman
Reggie Williams (Castle Rock, Colo./Douglas County) led off the inning with a walk to extend his reached base streak to 74 consecutive games dating to last season. Following Williams' walk, Hennings reached on a single and then junior catcher
Brady Prewitt (Raytown, Mo./Iowa Western CC) followed with a 2-run double to left center off of Rhodes.
The Mavs got one of those runs back in the top of the eighth thanks to a single, a bunt, a ground out and an RBI single by Ethan Ezor to give Mesa a 7-2 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Pack got singles from junior rightfielder
Elijah Borjas (Denver, Colo./Lakewood), redshirt junior second baseman
Cole Knightley (Solvang, Calif./Santa Ynez) and Hanenberg to make the score 7-3.
The Mavs put two runners on base in the ninth against graduate student reliever
Ruben Portillo (Thornton, Colo./Eastern Arizona CC), but left those two runners stranded as Portillo got out of the jam by forcing Wiesner to ground out to end the inning.
Rhodes (1-2) tossed seven innings for the Mavs as he allowed three hits and two runs, while walking two and fanning seven.
Mesa finished the game with 15 hits, including three hits each from Villafuente, Reynolds and Julian Boyd, who came a homer short of hitting for the cycle as he recorded a single, a double and a triple in the game. Wiesner and Rob Sharrar each had two hits for the Mavs.
The Mavs left 10 runners on base and turned three double plays in the game, while the Pack left one runner on base.
The two teams continue the four-game series with a doubleheader on Friday, April 7. First pitch for the doubleheader is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Rawlings Field.
