PUEBLO, Colo. - The Colorado State University Pueblo Baseball squad dropped their 2025 home opener at Rawlings Field to Montana State University Billings on Thursday afternoon.

With the loss, the Pack fall to 3-2 on the season. The ThunderWolves started the season 3-0 down in Arizona last week, but have dropped their last two games. With the win for the Yellow Jackets, MSU Billings improves to 4-2 overall on the season. 

Last season when the two teams met in Pueblo, the series was split at two games apiece.

Taking the loss for the ThunderWolves was righty Jacob Petersheim. Lance Schaaf picked up the win for Billings.

Leading the Pack on the offensive end was their slugger Christian Castaneda who went 3-6 on the afternoon with a homerun and four RBI's. 

Kysen Howard and Dax Howard made their impact as the Kansas brothers hit a combined 3-5 on the afternoon with five RBI's. 

ABOUT THE GAME
The Yellow Jackets were able to get to starter Jake Olguin-Pacheco in the first inning, going for three runs in the top half of the inning. The ThunderWolves answered in the bottom half of the first with RBI singles from Castaneda and George Andrews, cutting the lead down to 3-2. The Pack left the bases loaded in the bottom half of the inning and were on able to get two runs across.

Olguin-Pacheco settled down and pitched two scoreless innings in the second and third innings. 

Head Coach Bobby Applegate went to his bullpen early in the fourth inning after Billings was threatening to score again. The Yellow Jackets were able to get two more runs across to put Billings up 5-2. 

The Pack answered once again in the fourth, tying the game at 5-5 with some defensive mishaps from the Yellow Jackets. Once again though, Billings was able to retake the lead, knocking four runs across in the fifth. 

Dax Howard made quite the entrance, as the freshman hit a bases clearing triple in the sixth inning to pick up his first collegiate hit, giving the ThunderWolves a boost of energy to cut the lead down to 9-8. 

Kysen Howard provided one of the early season memories, as the older brother of Dax drilled a two-run homer over the left field wall to drive in his younger brother and give the Pack their first lead of the crazy evening.

However, Billings showed their gritty nature, retaking the lead in the seventh with two runs to go up 11-10. Castaneda delivered a haymaker in the bottom half of the inning, smoking a two-run homer over the left field wall, giving the lead back to the ThunderWolves.

The Pack finally looked like they had gained the momentum, but a two out rally in the eighth inning snatched the game right out of the hands of the ThunderWolves. The Yellow Jackets exploded with five runs in the inning to blow the game wide open at 16-12. 

CSU Pueblo was able to only get one more run across in the bottom of the ninth, eventually dropping game one of the series 16-13.