CLEBURNE, TX – Colorado Christian has been playing NCAA Division II baseball since the 2006 season. For just the second time in those 15 years, the Cougars have started a season with three straight wins.

On Saturday evening Colorado Christian registered a 7-3 win against Rogers State at the 4~Him Classic. With the victory the Cougars will play Southern Arkansas on Sunday afternoon for the classic's championship.

During the 2009 season, the program began the year with three wins.

After giving up the game's initial run in the first inning, the Cougars moved forward quite well in knocking off the NCAA Division II Regional qualifier from 2019.

In the second frame, Blake Mattey set the tone for the inning with a leadoff triple. After a Marcus McCannel walk, Connor Marschall hit an RBI single. Hunter Hays continued the hit parade with another RBI single. Matt Kimura completed the scoring with a sacrifice fly to centerfield that scored Marschall. The Cougars would never trail again.

Zayne Willems hit his second big fly of the event to leadoff the third inning as the Cougars increased their lead to 4-1. It was the last run for either team for four innings. Meanwhile on the mound Cougar starting hurler Justin Kiedinger gave-up just three hits in five innings of work and struck out six before being relieved by Jarrod Rivera.

In the eighth inning the Cougars got all the insurance they needed when Marschall jacked a 2-0 offering over the leftfield fence for a three-run homerun.

Although Rivera gave-up a pair of runs in the ninth inning, the righthander went four strong innings to earn the save. Rivera punched out four hitters in his solid relief effort.