It’s been a while since I’ve posted and alot has happened in our season during that time. Currently we are flirting to stay above .500 and it has been a bit of a topsy turvy season so far filled with alot of success and failure.

It started with a tough series loss to Mesa State 3 weeks ago in which they came in here and took 3 out of four games. Our win came behind the strong arm of new ace Coleman Stevens (9 ip, 1 run) who currently is ridding on three straight complete game victories. We must have taken, along with the rest of the RMAC, that they are really hot right now and are rolling along.

The following week started out great with a 19 run performance in a win against metro state, but just like the Mesa series, the roadrunners took the final three games to earn the series victory.

With all of that, we were neck and neck with Metro State in the hunt for the third spot in our conference to get an automatic bid to the NCAA regional. We just finished up a series victory against Colorado Christian and are on teh verge of finishing our season.

Our next task is redeeming ourselves against Regis, who took the first series earlier in the year. It starts out with our annual “Pack the Park” game and then two more at Regis the following day. Hopefully we can get a series win here to help us get started for the biggest upcoming series against Nebraska-Kearney.

Overall, we are still looking to click on both the offensive and defensive side, but we are getting production from so many different people to help keep our season alive. Some noteables on the offensive side are Justin Cooper who has helped our lineup and the big bat of Junior catcher Kyle Wager and outfielders Jon Proesl and Zach Hoffman who continue to carry our team. On the hill, Coleman Stevens and lefty Josh Herback-South (both D1 transfers) have provided a solid one two punch that will continue to help rpovide victories the rest of the way.

JR

After a tough and disappointing weekend against Regis University, we received stellar starting pitching this weekend in a sweep against Nebraska Kearney. Kearney was a tough team coming in, and knowing that they were currently on top of our conference section with a 9-4 record, we were in for a fight.

What set the tone for the weekend definitely had to be the weather. Friday and Saturday proved to be the two best days in the past couple of weeks. No snow, no cold, just clear skies and shinning sun. The only factor seemed to be Friday’s wind, and “flag baseball” was certainly in place. In our 6-3 win, two back-to-back home runs cleared the right field fence (where the wind was obviously blowing) by seniors Jon Proesl and Zach Hoffman in the first inning of Friday’s contest set the tone for what proved to be a four home run day combined by both teams. We also received a great start by Dillion Meaney who is starting to come around as our number one pitcher.

In addition, our top reliever Wes Oliver has really stepped up out of the pen for us this year, finishing Friday game in his usually fashion by throwing three scoreless innings to finish out Friday’s contest. The sidewinder seemed to have Kearney offgaurd in all three innings after seeing the fireballer Meaney for the first six frames.

Saturday’s contest once again came from our pitchers, most notably Kevin McDonald who threw 6 1/3  innings of one hit, one run ball filling in for injuried southpaw Josh-Herback South. He kept us in the game all the way as we were able to mustard up 10 runs in a 10-4 victory behind a 5 RBI performance by Jon Proesl. He seems to come up huge in every at-bat with runners on, not only this game, but throughout the season. The second game was quick, as Joaquin Montano threw six innings of scoreless baseball in a 4-0 victory.

Our pitchers were definitely the key factor this weekend, and it showed in a combined 6 hit in 16 inning performance combined by our pitching staff. What is important to note and will be huge to our teams success is the return of our big hurler Cole Stephens as he closed out both games Saturday getting his feet wet in college play in over two years! The Texas Tech transfer who started the season with a hand injury, returned last week throwing bullpens and live batting practice and his electric fastball will be a key stronghold to our pen this year.

It’s exciting that we are starting to click and this weekend certainly was a picker upper towards our push for a conference title.

What also was exciting is that we were finally able to tear down our indoor facility. This weather forced us to be in there constantly over the last few weeks, adn although it was a great assest, nothing compares to being out on the field. To me it simple means the weather is clearing up for good, and spring is finally here (only two months late)!

This week we host New Mexico Highlands tomorrow for a double header makeup form two weeks ago, and Colorado School of Mines this weekend in a three-game series. Lets hope for some continued good weather, stellar pitching, and timely hitting this week!

JR 26

Welcome back! It’s been a bit of a layoff from writing on here, but as the season’s challenges continue, so does the school work. Two weeks ago we matched up New Mexico Highlands, and they were surely no joke.

We were able to take one game from them out of the two we played because of the weather, but the team itself is so well depth in pitching with Vassell and in hitting with guys like Carr and Garcia. It was such a well balanced team, and no doubt it was a good test. The first game got away from us a bit early and we ended up loosing 7-3. The second game became a nail bitter towards the end because of their explosive offense, scoring four runs in the sixth inning. We slipped away though winning 8-7 with an exellent performance by Zach Richmond to close the game in the back end.

This weekend’s series began conference play. It was a bit of a down and dissapoing note though dropping two out of three games to Regis University. They are a scrappy bunch and prove that no one can be taken lightly in this conference that is so well balanced in offense and pitching.

Offensively we are coming along and gaining some confidence at the plate. Seniors like Zach Hoffman, Jon Proesl, and Mark Sayas are all catalyst for our team and have been a key part to our success. On the mound, we are still trying to get healthy, but we are making strides in our bullpen with guys like Nate Perlitch, Wes Oliver, and Zach Richmond. Also getting guys like Cole Stephens back from an injury this week will be huge in our conference push.

We play Nebraska Kearney this weekend at home who will prove to be another test for our team. They sit above our conference right now, but to be the best you have to chase the best, and that is what we are doing right now.

JR 26

Well, the season is in full tune, we are 4-4right now, and have New Mexico Highlands coming into our place this weekend. I feel very confident that we will start to get things together and click as a team, and Highlands presents another great test for this just like Mesa State was last week.

Quickly on our Mesa Series, after being shutout 8-0 in the first game, we erupted for two 4-run innings in the 1st and 2nd for a 12-4 win behind another solid start from Joaquin Montano. On Saturday we received another great outing from Josh Herback-South (who made his season debut) in a 12-0 win, but our bats were shut down once more in a 4-0 game 2 loss. Mesa’s starter had our number all game, and it stung a bit because it would have been nice to take the series from them, especially after all the momentum we had. Nonetheless, it was a great series, and expect this weekends Highlands series to be no different.

In regards to the weather, PLEASE STOP SNOWING!!!! I really do not enjoy these double header games, not only because they are physically exhausting, but take away from the quality of the game because we have to make them seven inning each. I don’t know why the NCAA allows us to do this, but if it needs to be doen to play, then it needs to be done. But I hope we can get some good weather soon here to be able to play some single game days for a chance.

Keep posted for our Highlands update and hopefully we can come out strong to compete and come out with some victories against this fierce hitting team.

Sweet Caroline!

JR 26

Well, this weekend’s opener against Metro State was a tough pill to swallow, but luckily enough we got away with a 2-2 split against the Roadrunners.

With the series already making adjustments for the weather before it even began, we ended up playing a doubleheader on Friday in Denver and a doubleheader on Saturday at home. Hows this for a start: in the frigid cold, our buses pulled out at 6:30 a.m. from our field to head to Denver to get in a 12 o’clock game. This weather has indeed made things difficult to our start, but I am happy the season is finally here. Needless to say, this week really showed alot about our team. One, that we can really bang the ball around, but also that we have many adjustments to make as a whole. We had our identity tested right away though as we came back from a 8-2 deficit to win 11-8. One of our senior leaders Zach Hoffman started our comeback with a monster home run to right center, and from that, we jsut continued to bang the ball around to score five runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. It was very exciting to watch a comeback right off the bat, with all pun intended. With our pitching staff a bit banged up and a rough start from DIllion Meaney, our bats are going to be key in being successful this season while our pitchers heal up and become better experienced.This was evident in our game 2 loss (9-8) as we gave up a tough walk off double to Metro in the last inning.

Saturday’s games proved to show that we actually did have some gems in our pitching staff’s bag, as Kansas transfer Daniel Manos through 5 solid innings, allowing one run on three hits. Unfortunately, we lost the game on a couple of monster home runs by Metro (boy can they swing it!), but came back in game two on another stellar pitching performance by started Juaquin Montano as he tossed a complete game eight strikeout performance in a 9-2 win. Jon Proesl, who is returning from a stellar 2008 campaign, hit well going 2-2 with a monster 2 run home run to right. The only downside to this game was that we lost our lead-off hitter and centerfielder Andrew Castaneda after he broke his ring finger on a hit by pitch trying to bunt. Hopefully he can make a quick return to the lineup in the coming weeks.

Overall, we are 2-2, and have a giant series coming up against Mesa State. We are still continuing to find certain qualities of our team and fix up our pitching staff. Nonetheless, we are continuing to fight our adversity and play solidly this weekend to win this tough series.  I’ll be back next week for a series recap and team update.

Sweet Caroline!

JR 26