This weekend the CCU Cougars will play a pair of games against Colorado Mesa and Colorado School of Mines hosted in Golden, CO. Because the RMAC currently has nine schools that participate in baseball, every team is part of a three-team pod that plays a similar weekend mini-tournament each season. This will be the final season for pod play though as next year the RMAC will add Dixie State to the conference to bring the baseball count to an even 10.
 
The Cougars took on the Mavericks from CMU in game one of today's double-header at 12:00 p.m. Having lost the last series, but won the final game in that series, the Cougars knew they could hang with the 7^th ranked Mavericks, and though the Cougars kept it close, they ultimately fell to Mesa 6-7.
 
Immediately following the Mesa game, Colorado Christian took on the Colorado School of Mines for game two. Coming into the day the Orediggers shared the top spot in the RMAC with CMU having matching conference records, but that tie would not last the day as the Cougars handily took their second game of the day from CSM by a score of 11-6.
 
Game 1 vs. Colorado Mesa:
 
 
The first game of the day was a tight one from start to finish with neither team holding more than a three-run lead at any point, and even that lead lasted just half an inning. Both teams worked the plate hard, earning a combined 17 walks, but left a lot of runs stranded with 20 combined runners left on base.
 
The first inning was quiet for both teams, each working a walk and not recording a hit. The Mavericks opened the scoring in the second with a leadoff double that would eventually score on a sacrifice to give them an early 1-0 lead. The Cougars would answer in the next half inning with some small ball. Austin Maltby would lead off the inning with a walk and be methodically moved over to third on a sac bunt and a grounder to second. Cooper Gray would step into the batter's box and extend his team leading 17 game hit-streak and score Maltby to even the score at 1-1.
 
The Cougars took the lead in the top of the 4^th inning after Scotty Wright, who was pulling double duty as pitcher and the #8 hitter for CCU, reached on an error and eventually scored on an Austin Maltby double later in the inning to put the Cougs up 2-1.
 
CCU would hold that lead until the bottom of the 5^th inning when CMU would score four runs on just two hits, taking advantage of four walks in the inning. The Mavericks would take a 5-2 lead, but the lead would be short lived.
 
Colorado Christian was not going away, and in the top of the 6^th inning evened the score at 5-5. Alex Ginn came in to the pitchers spot that was up in the batting order and promptly worked a full count walk to get the Cougars on the base path. Wasting no time, the next batter Austin Atkerson doubled to deep right center, a strong enough hit for Ginn to score from first. Austin Maltby would later reach base on a fielder choice, and the two Austin's would score on consecutive singles by Joel Manzano and Cooper Gray to get the Cougars to five runs.
 
After two scoreless frames, the Mavericks were back at it, scoring two runs on three hits in the bottom of the seventh to take back the lead, 7-5. The Cougars would not take long to answer. Luke Bote stepped up to the plate in the top of the 8^th inning and crushed his first career home run to straight away center field to bring the Cougars back within one run at 6-7. The Cougars would work three walks after that, but would not be able to capitalize on loaded bases with two outs and would have to settle for just the one run.
 
Mesa would be held to one hit and no runs in the bottom of the 8^th, so with just one run to make up in the top of the 9^th inning, the Cougars went back to work. CCU's first two batter would be retired, and Bote would reach on an error by the Mesa third baseman. With Bote on first, Austin Maltby, who represented the winning run, would be hit by a pitch for a free base. Freshman shortstop JC Barrios would come up to bat for CCU, but with an 0-2 count he saw a pitch he liked and swung, unfortunately it didn't connect and the game ended with the final score of 7-6 in favor of the Mavericks.
 
Pitching for the Cougars was strong against one of the RMAC's most potent offenses. Reliever Alex Ginn, who had a strong 6^th inning against Mesa, was tagged with the lose after allowing two runs in the 7^th. As a squad, the CCU pitching staff struck out just four batters while walking 10.
 
Cooper Gray and Austin Atkerson led the way with two hits each, while Austin Maltby went 1-2, but did work a pair of walks as well. Gray was the only Cougar with multiple RBI's while Maltby was the sole CCU player with multiple runs scored.
 
Game 2 vs. Colorado School of Mines:
 
With just half an hour between games, and facing a new opponent in Colorado School of Mines, the Cougars had no time to sit with the results of the first game. Though not nationally ranked like Colorado Mesa, the Orediggers brought with them their own impressive claims, including a share of the RMAC lead coming into the day and the sixth highest batting average in the nation among Division II schools at .337. Unfortunately for Mines, they would face off with Joey Loranger, the RMAC ERA leader and pitcher with the third best opponent batting average allowing challenging hitters and average of just .231. Joey won.
 
The Cougar bats gave Loranger some room to work with early, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the 1^st inning. The first two CCU batters would reach on a single and an error and would both be brought home on a Jerry Gallegos double to left field.
 
In the bottom half of the inning Mines would respond with one run on one hit, and with the score at 2-1, that would be the last point in the game where the Cougars would have to worry about the lead.
 
CCU would go on to score nine runs in the next four innings to drive the lead to 11-1. During that same stretch the Orediggers would not have a baserunner reach second base, and in the bottom of the 4^th inning, Loranger would strike out the side on 11 pitches.
 
The Cougars experienced a power surge during their four-inning run rampage the likes of which they had not seen all season. In three straight innings the Cougars launched at least one home run, the first was provided by Austin Maltby over the right field wall in the 2^nd inning, then JC Barrios lifted one to left field in the 3^rd inning, and the launch party culminated in the 4^th inning with a pair of bombs from Cooper Gray and Jerry Gallegos to left and right field respectively. The four home runs accounted for 6 RBI's and was just the fifth game this season with multiple homers by the Cougars.
 
With a 10-run cushion in the 5^th inning, Joey Loranger had his sights set on the first complete game by a Cougar pitcher this season. Loranger would get off to a rough start in the bottom of the fifth inning, allowing three runs on five hits, but ended that inning with a strike out looking and never allowed more than one hit or one run in another inning.
 
Joey would end the game having thrown 131 pitches, striking out nine Orediggers, allowing five earned runs, and walking just one batter. Joey would earn his third win of the season, holding a team that is 6^th in the nation in batting average at .337, to just .306.
 
CCU's bats were locked in against CSM, hitting .357 with five Cougars with multiple hits, including Jerry Gallegos who bounced back from a hitless game against Mesa to go 4-5 with four RBI's and 2 runs scored. On Gallegos' second hit, a double in the top of the 3^rd, Jerry broke another CCU career record, this time it was record for most total bases. The previous record was 332 and after today's game where Jerry collected a dozen, he stands alone at 338 and counting.
 
After the Cougars first day split, their record stands at 14-14 (9-9 RMAC). The Cougs will be back in action on Sunday the 8^th for a single game against Colorado Mesa, for their final match-up against the Mavericks during the regular season. Game time is set for 12:00 p.m. in Golden.