No. 2 seed Rangers top No. 5 MSU Denver to open RMAC Tournament - Regis University Athletics (2024)

• Summary
• Box Score

Shelby Streeter, CMU Athletics

Game Recap: Baseball | May 08 | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Behind a ton of early offense, and a clutch relief appearance from redshirt senior Luke Douthitt, the No. 2 seeded Regis University baseball team opened up the 2024 RMAC Tournament with a 16-7 victory over rival MSU Denver, remaining on the winners' side of the bracket heading into Thursday's action.

With the victory, Regis (30-20-1 overall) earned the program's first ever back-to-back 30 win seasons — just the sixth 30-win season in program history — and moved to 4-1 this season against its crosstown rivals, MSU Denver (28-23 overall).

Additionally, the Rangers have also earned a date with No. 3 seed Colorado School of Mines on Thursday evening in the second round. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at The Diamond in Grand Junction.

"It was great to open up the RMAC Tournament with a win, no matter who we were facing, because all six teams in this tournament are very good and have the opportunity to win this whole thing," said Regis head baseball coach, Pat Jolley. "To get the complete team performance like we did, I couldn't be more happy with our guys. There were some many different players who stepped up and played significant roles."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Regis leaned on a deep and dangerous lineup in the early innings, scoring three or more runs in three of the first four innings.

The Rangers hung a four-spot in the bottom of the first, receiving a trio of RBI singles by junior Garrett Rede, senior Zach Barnao and junior Tanner Rice, as well as a RBI groundout by junior Maxim Fullerton; one of his three RBI via productive outs on the evening.

Barnao would help push the Rangers' lead to 7-2 in the bottom of the second, hammering a home run that easily cleared the 370-mark in left-center as part of his 3-for-4, 3 RBI debut in the RMAC Tournament.

"The cool thing with Zach is he was a guy who didn't travel every weekend with us earlier in the season. He had to battle, continue to work hard and spend a lot of hours by himself, which is tough for a competitor because he wanted to be there and have his opportunity. But what a great example of a kid who loves his teammates, his teammates love him, and here the last 4-5 weeks he has played a significant role for our offense," Jolley said. "He's a good hitter and I'm glad he's not only on our team, but that he is as mature as he is to handle adversity like he did early in the season. He's reaping the rewards for it right now."

MSU Denver would not go quietly into the night, however, as the Roadrunners rallied all the way back to tie the game at 7-7 in the top of the fourth with five straight unanswered runs.

With the momentum of the game hanging in the balance, Regis called upon redshirt senior Luke Douthitt out of the bullpen to get the final two outs of the third; part a of a shutdown 3.2 innings of relief for Douthitt where he limited MSU Denver to just one run on three hits en route to earning the victory on the bump.

"I think since Luke has made the move into the bullpen, he has been very good and tonight was just another example of that. He was absolutely huge for us and the reason we got the win," Jolley said. "Sometimes it comes down to stopping a good offense and MSU Denver has a very good offense. You could tell Luke really wanted the moment and he pitched outstanding."

With Douthitt dealing on the hill, the Rangers recaptured the lead for good with a five-run fourth inning, highlighted by a two-run single by junior shortstop Clayton Conn.

Conn was 3-for-6 with a pair of doubles atop a Regis batting order that had eight different players record at least one hit and seven different players drive in a run on Wednesday.

"That's been kind of a theme we've had most of the year of being able to score in a lot of different ways and with a lot of different guys. We did a really good job of getting runners on base and then were able to either score runs by swinging the bats or by action on the base paths," Jolley said. "I couldn't be more pleased with how we attacked the game, offensively."

Junior first baseman Matt Graf paced all Rangers with four hits (4-for-5, 4 runs), while Conn and Barnao followed with three hits apiece.

UP NEXT
Regis will now get prepared for another evening contest on Thursday when the team squares off against No. 3 seed Colorado School of Mines at 7 p.m.

The Rangers and Orediggers met back in Denver on April 12-14, splitting the season series. The winner of Thursday's game would earn a spot in the winners' bracket semi-finals on Friday.

"They are a very good club and I think we're both teams that are worthy of regional consideration," Jolley said. "It's going to be a great battle, a great test and we're going to have to put our best effort forward."