DENVER, Colo. – The Regis University baseball team (19-13, 11-8 RMAC) dropped both games of the double-header against Metropolitan State University of Denver (16-16, 12-7 RMAC) on Saturday.  
 
How It Happened | Game 1: The Roadrunners claimed the first runs of the game in the bottom of the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. They got a base runner onboard via a walk and the next batter up hit a two-run homerun on an 0-1 count.
 
Regis hit a homerun of their own off the bat of senior Zach Dedin to make the score 2-1. MSU added two more runs after hitting four-straight singles in the bottom half of the inning.
 
The score stood at 4-1until the Roadrunners pushed three more runs across home-plate in the bottom of the sixth. Donny Ortiz Jr., last weeks' NCBWA South Central Region Hitter of the Week, stepped into the batters' box with bases loaded, due to two walks and a single. Ortiz lined a 3-RBI triple into the outfield to give MSU a 7-1 advantage.
 
The Rangers managed to get a baserunner in scoring position in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh inning but could not find a way to advance anyone past second.
 
Game Notes | Game 1: Senior Chris Kobar (2-4) led RU with two hits. Dedin (1-2, 1 HR, I RBI) was responsible for Regis' lone run of the contest. Junior Logan Heflebower (1-3) and sophomores Coby Zimmerman (1-3) and Ryan Tierney (1-2) all had a base-hit for the Rangers.
 
RU collected six hits and left eight base runners stranded. Senior Andrew Bryniarski collected seven put-puts at first base and Kobar accounted for six put-outs and two assists from behind the plate.
 
Sophomore Cobe Karhoff (2-3) pitched 5.1 innings and struck-out five of the 27 batters he faced. He threw a total of 80 pitches, allowing seven runs on six singles and a homerun.
 
How It Happened | Game 2: Junior Connor Rochon took the first pitch he saw and sent it out of the park for a solo homerun, giving Regis a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
 
The Rangers recorded three hits and two runs in the very next inning. Dedin hit a double to follow a Kobar single, placing runners on second and third with just one out. Kobar came around to score the second RU run and Dedin advanced to third on a passed-ball.
 
After fouling-off two pitches, Heflebower put one in play for an RBI-single, scoring Dedin and stretching the score to 3-0.
 
The Roadrunners answered with six unanswered runs, two in the bottom of the second and four in the bottom of the fourth. Their two runs in the second inning came off a two-run homerun to close the gap to 3-2.
 
MSU took the lead, 6-3, with four runs on four hits and an error in the fourth inning. Regis stopped the bleeding with a run in the top of the fifth inning.
 
Bryniarski got onboard with a two-out single and came around to score on an RBI-double to left-center by senior Garrett Skillings.
 
A walk and a double for the Roadrunners in the bottom of the fifth resulted in another run, putting them back up by three, 7-4.
 
The Rangers loaded the bases in the top of the sixth with two singles and a walk but left all the runners on base after a pitching change got the Roadrunners out of the inning.
 
MSU scored the last run of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning with three singles, two stolen basses and a passed-ball to win the game 8-4.
 
Game Notes | Game 2: Heflebower (3-3, I RBI) was the only RU batter to bat 1.000. Six other Regis batters collected a single hit for a total of nine for the team.
 
The Rangers were out-hit 13-9 by MSU and each team committed one error.
 
Senior Chris Quackenbush (0-1) received his first loss of the season.
 
Up Next for the Rangers: The Regis University baseball team will close their series against MSU with game four scheduled for 12 p.m. tomorrow, March 31.