GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (April 26, 2025) - A rollercoaster of a day saw Rollins fall behind early, come back to take a late lead, and then lose the lead in the late innings as they dropped game two of the series against Colorado Mesa 9-6 on Saturday. The Tars now stand at 27-15 on the year, while the Mavericks improve to 32-10.
Starter
Nick Berger worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning, but could not pull off the same feat in the second. An error to open the inning gave the Mavericks extra life, and with two outs, they connected on two singles and a double to go up 4-0.
Neither team had much going on again until the sixth when Rollins put two men on with no outs. However, Mesa was able to work a popout, groundout, and flyout to escape unscathed.
After Berger worked a clean sixth to end his day, the Tars offense showed up in a big way in the top of the seventh.
Corey Zientek led off the inning with a solo home run, and
Rob Buckley followed with a single. After a pitching change, a walk and hit by pitch had the bases loaded with no outs. A second reliever was called on, but did not fare much better. Michael furry drove in a run with a fielder's choice,
Joey Rubin plated one with a singled, and
Dalton Pyzer was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded a few batters later to tie the game at four.
Ryan Murphy worked around a double in the seventh with a huge 5-4-3 double play to keep the game knotted.
More drama struck in the eighth. With the bases loaded and two out,
Jeslyn Whitehead ripped a single to left that scored
Jimmy Thies and
Angelo Ramirez to put Rollins ahead 6-4.
Mason Wilson then stepped up and launched a ball to right field that looked like a no doubt home run, but the cruel mountain breeze brought the ball back to the warning track where it was caught to end the inning.
The bottom half of the inning was a wild ride that saw Colorado Mesa score five runs on only three hits. They were aided by free passes from the Tars pitchers, though some questionable calls seemed to go the way of the Mavericks. They went up 9-6 by the end of the inning, and the Tars went three up, three down to end the game in the ninth.
Berger added another quality start to his season ledger with six innings, zero earned runs, two walks, and two strikeouts.
Douglas Rojas took the loss for Rollins. On offense, Whitehead had three hits and
Corey Zientek had two plus a stolen base.
Game three of the series is set for a 2:00 pm easstern first pitch on Sunday, April 27.
