The Colorado Christian baseball team completed their series against their newest RMAC foes, Dixie State University, but despite having a lead for the third game in a row, the Cougar were unable to hang on, dropping the finale by a score of 2-8. The sweep drops the Cougars to 12-33 on the season, and 7-25 in RMAC play.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
The Cougars and the Trailblazers were each held scoreless for the first three innings, unable to cash in on any of the combined five hits during that span. The Cougars opened up the scoring in the top of the 4th inning, when Joel Manzano's leadoff double turned into a run off of a Heath Hays groundout. Dixie State answered back immediately as they had done all series long, scoring five runs in their half of the frame to take a convincing lead. The Cougars would start to build momentum in the top of the 5th after Matt Kimura would lead off the inning reaching base after getting hit by a pitch and Scotty Ingle was on his way to a four-pitch walk. However, that momentum was taken away by the umpiring crew after a lengthy delay to deal with issues on the field. The next CCU batter would ground into a double play followed three pitches later by another ground out.
 
While the game was decided after the 5th inning, the action was not quite wrapped up. Showing no give-up in him, Matt Kimura stepped to the plate for his final at-bat on the day and took the fifth pitch of a 3-1 count deep over the left field wall for his first ever homerun as a Cougar.
 
Joel Manzano led the Cougar offense for the weekend, going 7-14 at the plate and scoring three runs. Heath Hays made his hits count, batting .333 for the weekend, but scoring three runs and bringing in another three RBI's while also notching a double and a triple. The Cougar bullpen was not tasked with an easy assignment but performed admirably. The relievers pitched 10.2 innings over the four games, allowing just five earned runs and striking out eight, twice as many as all four starters combined.
 
WHAT IS NEXT:
 
The Cougars will travel home for their final weekend of action as they take on the nearby Regis Rangers for Senior Weekend. Due to scheduling conflicts with All Star Park, game one of the series will be on Thursday and played at 3:00 p.m. at the home field of Regis University, though CCU will be considered the home team. Friday's doubleheader and Saturday's finale will be back in Lakewood at All Star Park. Senior Day festivities will be held prior to the final game of the season on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at All Star Park.