A day after erasing an eight-run deficit en route to a comeback victory, Colorado Mesa University carried over Friday night’s momentum and took a pivotal doubleheader from MSU Denver to win their third consecutive series.
A pair of strong pitching performances by Andrew Morris and Garrett Hutson allowed the Mavericks to win the day with a 4-1 victory in game one and a 5-2 win in game two.
The huge day came after the Mavericks, who were down 10-2 after four innings in Friday’s contest, erased that deficit to win 14-13 in a game for the ages. Caleb Farmer was the hero with a go-ahead solo home run in the top of the ninth to take a one-run lead.
JR McDermott picked up the win and shut the door after MSU loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. McDermott struck out Matt Malkin to cap the comeback.
The momentum sure carried over Saturday as CMU looked like the team to beat in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Roadrunners came into the weekend series just two games behind the Mavericks for the conference lead. With a 3-0 series lead, the Mavericks all but diminished the chances for the Roadrunners to make a run for the RMAC regular-season title.
Morris pitched a third consecutive quality start against a dangerous MSU Denver lineup. He didn’t miss as many bats as he did in his previous two starts but limited the Roadrunners through 5 ⅔ innings. He scattered four hits and didn’t find danger until the sixth. After loading the bases, Will Dixon relieved the freshman and gave up a bases-loaded walk but struck out the next batter to end the threat.
Morris allowed one run on four hits and two walks but punched out three on the day.
Dixon earned his sixth save on the season with another clean 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh.
The young hurler has allowed just three runs in his past 19 ⅓ innings on seven hits with 25 strikeouts. He’s lowered his earned run average to 3.20 after pitching sparingly throughout the year as a reliever, but now looks like a quality starter CMU coach Chris Hanks can rely on.
Jordan Stubbings provided Morris with early run support in the first few innings. He belted a two-out home run in the first to left field off starter Austin Stone and added a sacrifice fly in the third that proved to be more than enough for Morris on the day.
After Farmer led off the sixth with a single, Haydn McGeary brought him home with an RBI double to center. Later in the inning, Chase Hamilton padded CMU’s lead with an RBI groundout.
Hutson came into Saturday’s start looking for redemption. The senior was coming off his worst outing off the season after giving up seven runs and three home runs last Saturday.
He pitched well when it was most needed as he allowed three baserunners across five innings before, like Morris, the Roadrunners figured things out in the sixth. Malkin, who homered off Hutson in the fourth, hit an RBI double to cut the deficit to three, Dixon came in once again to lock down the save.
He retired all four batters he faced and struck out the last two to cap the doubleheader sweep.
The Mavericks gained an early 2-0 lead in the first after a sac fly by McGeary and an RBI single by Hamilton. Stubbings continued his home run binge with another solo shot in the third, with this one also to left field. He’s homered in five of his past seven games, and his home run tally is up to nine on the season.
On a day CMU needed their pitching to shine, it did. The Roadrunners mustered three runs on the day on a combined eight hits.
As the team with the best batting average in the RMAC, it’s not the weekend they hoped for in a series they desperately needed to close the gap against the RMAC leading Mavericks.
CMU (37-8, 25-6 in RMAC) now leads MSU Denver (27-17, 19-12 in RMAC) by six games for the conference lead.
