COLORADO SPRINGS, CO- The Cougars began RMAC play on Saturday as they traveled to take on UCCS. In an extremely hard fought game, a late surge from the Mountain Lions gave them a 7-6 victory over CCU. 

The first few innings featured no runs from either team, but the third inning proved to be when the majority of the action occurred. The Cougars got on the board first on a Gavin Acosta groundout that plated Nathan Owens. Gregory Rangel came up next and roped a single to make it 2-0 as Connor Laeng came home. William kept the scoring going with an RBI double, and Major Maydon capped the inning with a two-run single to make it 5-0. 

The hosts refused to go down without a fight, and they responded with four runs in the bottom half of the third and one more in the fourth to level the score at 5-5. Brassil put his team back on top 6-5 in the fifth as he notched an RBI groundout to score Acosta. The teams battled until the bottom of the 8th when UCCS managed to hit a two-run home run to take a late 7-6 lead. The Cougars could not manage to rally in the 9th as they fell 7-6 in the conference opener. 

Zachary Hill got the start on the mound, striking out four batters across 4.2 innings of work. Jack Cazin threw the final 3.1 innings for his team, fanning five batters. Maydon and Brassil paced the offense with two RBI apiece, and Acosta and Rangel each tallied an RBI. 

The Cougars will continue play at UCCS with a doubleheader on March 9 at 12 and 2:30 p.m. MST.