Photo by William Moore • moorwill@mscd.edu

Metro second baseman Tommy Frikken dives for a ball against Colorado Christian Sunday during the second game of a doubleheader at Auraria Field. Metro split with CCU, winning the first game 8-1, and losing the second 5-3.

‘Runners nearly sweep Cougars
After winning first three games, Metro’s bats silenced in series finale
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

   With only three series left to go for the Roadrunners, every Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference game is a “must win.

   ” Metro currently holds the fifth spot in the RMAC standings and needs to move into that fourth position to qualify for the RMAC playoffs.

   It turned out to be “home-sweet-home” as the Metro baseball team took three of four in an RMAC series against Colorado Christian University.

   “ Anytime you can win a series, you can feel good,” said Metro head coach Vince Porreco.
   “However, this is a series when you think you can bring it home. They (CCU) haven’t had a great season and when you need to win, you need to sweep them.”

   Porreco was referring to the final game of the series when Metro failed to finish the series sweep, hoping that one game doesn’t come back to haunt them.

   “ We didn’t play,” he said. “They out-hit us, they out-played us, and they were just giving it to us while we just took it.”

   Metro got off on the right pitch as game one featured a spectacular pitching performance from junior Braden Ham. Ham, who leads the team with six wins, pitched a complete shutout game while allowing only six hits and striking out three Cougars. Ham did see early trouble by allowing the first two batters he saw to hit consecutive singles.

   It did not seem to faze him as he struck out freshman Jay Beleu and got freshmen Patrick Garcia and Chris Polton to fly out to end the inning without a scratch.

   “ I’m just trying to throw strikes and learn from the other guys,” Ham said. “I watch Ryan (Bright) a lot and am learning to work down in the strike zone.”

   Metro did not fare much better in the hits category as it only produced seven, but they took advantage of its base runners by scoring two in the third inning and one in the six.

   The third inning began when freshman Tommy Frikken singled and advanced to second on an error by Garcia. After junior Kyle Bowman singled to move Frikken to third base, sophomore Reece Gorman brought Frikken home on a groundout with his 21st RBI on the year.

   Senior Mike Hoefs also contributed in the third with a double that scored Bowman.
   Sophomore Jake Palmer hit his eighth homerun of the season off freshman Cam Corbett in the sixth inning to finalize Metro’s scoring at 3-0. Corbett (1-9) pitched a good game going six innings allowing only three runs on seven hits but recorded the loss as the offense could not produce a single run for the pitcher.

   The Roadrunners offense showed up in game two as Metro pounded out 10 runs on 13 hits to outlast Colorado Christian 10-6. The 1-2-3-4 hitters for Metro, which included Bowman, Gorman, Hoefs and Palmer, went a combined 9-for-13 with 7 runs, four homeruns and 10 RBI.

    Frikken and junior Troy Spahn also contributed two hits a piece for the Roadrunners.

   Metro got down early to Colorado Christian by allowing the Cougars to jump out to a 4-0 lead through the first three innings. Sophomore Josh Eckert, who started for Metro, was hit for two runs on four hits in the first inning and two runs on three hits, including an error that moved runners into scoring position in the third. Metro backed up their starting pitcher when they exploded for eight runs in the next four innings with three in the third, single runs in the fourth and fifth innings and another three spot in the sixth.

   With the score at 8-6, Hoefs provided some insurance runs with his second homerun of the game taking freshman pitcher Matt Jones deep to left field for a two-run shot. Eckert (4-6) won his fourth game on the season even though he allowed 13 hits to the Cougars and it seemed Eckert was pitching out of jams all day long.

   Metro won its fourth game in a row in game three as junior Mike Bilek pitched a four-hitter and the offense scored five runs in the fifth inning to beat Colorado Christian 8-1. Bilek had his fastball and slider working all day as he struck out six Cougars and went the distance for his third win on the year.

   “ Mike did a great job today and we had some key hits,” Porreco said about game three.

   “Reece (Gorman) came up and pinch hit and hit a double that cleared the bases. Mike did a good job the whole game.”

    Heading into the fifth inning, the Roadrunners were clinging to a 2-1 lead. With the bases loaded, Hoefs scored on a wild pitch from freshman pitcher Will Munsil and the next batter, junior Alex Krohn, hit a sacrifice fly to put Metro up 4-1. Metro again loaded the bases in the inning when Porreco brought Gorman in as a pinch hitter.

   It almost looked as if they were ready to bring out the brooms before it was over.

   However, the Cougars did the mopping as they denied the sweep and beat the Roadrunners 5-3. The pitching combination of freshmen Bud Wilborn and David Hendricks came through for the Cougars as they gave up only three runs on four hits while striking out four batters.

    The one stat that jumps out from the box score however is the nine walks given up by Cougar pitching. Metro had great opportunities to score in the fourth and fifth innings when Wilborn and Hendricks walked the bases loaded. The Roadrunners came away empty both times, leaving a total of 10 men on base all game.

   “ We didn’t take advantage of their mistakes,” Porreco said about CCU’s freshmen-heavy roster. “When you have a team like that and give them some inspiration and you give them the momentum after the bases loaded and you don’t score, the confidence builds and the pitchers get better.”

   Senior Ryan Bright (5-6) took the loss as he gave up two runs in the second and two runs in the fifth. Bright struck out five Cougars and gave up five runs on nine hits. Wilborn also had a good day at the plate going 3-4 with one run and Garcia had two RBI on the day going 1-for-4. Metro heads on the road next week to take on Colorado Mines who is 12-31 overall with a 4-20 RMAC record.

   Metro begins their four-game series against Colorado Mines on April 28.