The Cougars dropped the opening game of the series on Friday afternoon to Rogers State University by a final score of 4-2. It was a close game throughout as each team battled to try and get the upper hand, but in the end, the Hillcats pitching staff was able to hold the Colorado Christian offense in check and give their team the victory.
 
Ryan Erazo got the start for the Cougars in the game and pitched well as he was able to scatter seven hits in his five innings of work. He gave up four runs but only two were earned. Alex Ginn relieved Erazo in the sixth inning and threw well coming out of the bullpen. He held the Hillcats scoreless on just one hit in 2 2/3^rd innings pitched. Daniel Bednarski came in to relieve Ginn and recorded the final out of the eighth inning to keep CCU within striking distance of Rogers State.
 
Rogers State got the scoring started right away as they were able to score one in the bottom half of the first inning. The game remained 1-0 in favor of the Hillcats until the bottom half of the fifth inning when a costly throwing error allowed three runners to score to boost their lead to 4-0. The Cougars had an answer in the sixth inning as they scored two runs of their own to cut their deficit in half. Jerry Gallegos delivered the big blow with an RBI triple, which scored Chance Richardson who had led off the inning with a double of his own. Gallegos would come around to score later in the inning off of a ground out by Brandon Hesselberg. Unfortunately, no more runs were scored in the game as Rogers State took game one of the three game series by a final score of 4-2.
 
The loss drops the Cougars record to 2-6 on the year. They will be back in action on Saturday as they take on Rogers State for the final two games in the series. First pitch for the first game will be at 10AM MST, and the second game is tentatively scheduled to begin at 12:30PM MST.

DNL