The CCU baseball team played their fourth and final game of the series against the Rangers of Regis University on Sunday, March 19^th. The Cougars were hoping to build off the previous days success and ultimately draw a series split with the RMAC's stingiest pitching staff, allowing just 4.30 runs per game, the best number is RMAC.
 
The game started to make marks in the 3^rd inning, where CCU get their first two hits and two runs of the game and Regis scored their first earned run off a tripled to right center field. The Cougars scored came with two outs and compliments of a pair of walks given by the Ranger pitchers with two outs. Scotty Wright, yesterday's winning pitcher and todays starting designated hitter, poked a single through the left side and scored Cooper Gray and Scotty Ingle, the innings earlier walks. The score would be 2-1 Cougars after the third inning, but would not stay that way for long.
 
The Rangers would tack on solo runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings to take a 3-2 lead heading into the top of the 6^th inning, when Austin Atkerson evened things up again at 3-3 off a two-out solo homerun to right field. In the bottom portion of the inning, Regis would score two runs, just one earned, to take a 5-3 lead heading into the 7^th inning.
 
Freshman shortstop JC Barrios was eager to get the Cougars off to a hot start in the top of the 7^th but got himself into a little trouble while trying to stretch his double into a triple and would get thrown out at third by the Regis defense for the first out. Next up for the Cougs was second baseman Hunter Hays who hit a rough patch at the plate early in this series, but shook all of that off and singled up the middle to reach base for the Cougars when it mattered most. After the next batter ground out to first, Cooper Gray worked a walk for a free bag. A passed ball allowed Hays and Cooper to advance a base before Gallegos would work another walk to load the bases for Scotty Wright. Wright would tally his second hit of the day and drive in Gray and Hays to tie up the game at five all.
 
The Rangers and Cougars would take extra innings to decide this final match up, and between the top of the 8^th inning and the bottom of the 11^th, would combined for just eight hits and no runs and leave 12 runners on base.
 
That would all change in the top of the 12^th when the Cougars came up to bat again. After Wright reached base on a walk, the next batter, Luke Bote, would reach first on a fielding error by the pitcher, moving Wright to second. The following two batters popped and flew out, which should have been the end of the top of the inning, except that error would have been a third out, gave the Cougars an extra chance to capitalize on the opportunity. Immediately following the second out, Barrios came up to bat and sent another double through the right side, scoring Wright to take the lead in the top of the 12^th. Next up, Hunter Hays singled to the shortstop, Barrios would advance to second and get thrown out at third for the final out of the half inning, but not before Bote would tack on an insurance run for the Cougars to put them up 7-5.
 
The Rangers managed to get one runner on in the bottom of the 12^th, but he never made it further than first base. The game ended with the Cougars up 7-5, giving them a series split with the Rangers, and a 2-game win streak heading into their next series.
 
Pitching for the Cougars was clutch today, and even though starter Evan Fink was only able to get himself a no decision on the day, his 5 and 1/3 innings where he only allowed three earned runs while striking out four batters and walking two were the start the Cougs could rally behind. Reliever Alex Ginn came in for 2 and 2/3 innings, striking out three of the 10 batters he faced, and none of his batters ever saw anything past first base. Zach Haning came in for just one batter, but did his job perfectly, getting him to fly out harmlessly to right field. Finally, closer Jarrod Rivera came in when the game was still tied and was asked to take CCU home, though the length of that trip was unknown at the time. He would go 3 and 2/3 strong innings, allowing four hits and two walks, but no Ranger ever managed more than a single off of him. Rivera would get credit for the win, his first of the season.
 
At the plate five Cougars would tally two hits each, but Scotty Wright was the clear MVP on offense today, not only getting two hits, but timely hits that drove in four RBI's and scored one himself. Cooper Gray scored two runs on the day and works a pair of walks.
 
The Cougars improve to 8-10 overall and 3-5 in RMAC play after this weekend's split with Regis. Colorado Christian will be back in action at home this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with four games against the Mountain Lions of UCCS. The Mountain Lions are currently 12-12 overall, and 6-6 in conference, coming off a series against Adams State in which they took 3 of 4 against the Grizzlies. Fridays game is scheduled for a 3:00 p.m. start.