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Home > Sports

Photos by Alicia Jenkins • ajenki10@mscd.edu

Baseball team slugs way to sweep

By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Metro’s baseball team continued its rejuvenated season March 8, sweeping their two-game series against conference rival New Mexico-Highlands 16-13 and 3-2 at Auraria Field.

The back-to-back wins allowed the Roadrunners to rack up 14 wins in the first month of the season. Last season Metro finished the season with a 15-33 record, which shows the vast improvement of a team that seems to pack a punch with its bats.

“It’s a combination of new talent and returners,” Metro head coach Bobby Pierce said. “They are understanding and executing and setting a level of expectations for the new guys.”

Pierce also said that returners have had one season to comprehend his offensive system and are beginning to trust the coaching staff, which is turning his players into better hitters.

In game one of the doubleheader, the offense had no problem against Cowboys pitching, piling up 25 hits in scoring the 16 runs. Every player that had an at-bat had at least one hit, including four players with three hits and two players with four hits.

New Mexico-Highlands jumped on the scoreboard first, quickly scoring two runs in the top of the first inning. But Metro didn’t stay down for long, scoring six runs in the first three innings.

Roadrunner pitching had a rough time during the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, allowing the Cowboys to score 10 runs, increasing their lead to 12-6. But Metro’s sluggers would not be silenced as they pounded out nine more runs, including a four-run sixth inning that gave them the lead for good.

Metro third baseman Dakota Nahm had a two-run home run in that decisive sixth inning and finished the day going 3-for-5 at the plate, driving home two runs and scoring twice.

Last season, Nahm had a rough time at the plate, hitting an abysmal .130 with 14 hits in 108 at-bats while striking out 39 times. This season has seen a huge turnaround as the junior has increased his batting average to .313 with 15 hits in 48 at-bats, three home runs and 14 RBI.

“Dakota is a special case,” Pierce said. “In his freshman year, he probably had no expectations coming into it and had a phenomenal season. Coming into his sophomore year, all of a sudden he has a level of expectation and he gets into the ‘I got to’s and ‘I need to’s instead of just going out and playing the game and doing what made him successful.”

Metro starting pitcher Steven Green recorded his fifth win of the season (5-0) despite giving up eight runs on eight hits in five innings of work.

In game two, the runs didn’t come as often for either team as pitching stole the show.

Metro pitcher Armando Casas (4- 0) continued his spectacular season on the mound, pitching the entire seven innings, scattering eight hits, giving up two runs and striking out six Cowboys.

Cowboys pitcher Kohoku Piho, who remained winless (0-4), went pitch-for-pitch with Casas going the distance, allowing only two runs heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.

Metro second baseman Troy Spahn led off the final inning with a double to left-center field. Metro shortstop Matt McConnell advanced Spahn to third before Piho’s control went south. Piho went on to walk to the next two batters loading the bases with Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year Reece Gorman on deck. But Gorman didn’t even have to swing the bat as Piho hit Gorman, bringing Spahn home for the winning run.

Metro will take its stellar start against Mesa State, the No. 1 team in the conference. Despite upsetting the Mavericks in the RMAC Tournament last year, the ’Runners have had plenty of trouble with a team who has been a perennial power in Division II. The Mavericks are 4th in the regional rankings while Metro sits right beneath them at 5th. This should make for an exciting weekend of baseball.

“The whole league will be watching,” Pierce said. “It’s going to be a playoff atmosphere, a regional type of atmosphere. But as the same time, I’m not going to build the series like it’s better than anything else. We need to go out and do our things and execute; if we do that, we should come out and have a great weekend.”