Box Score Photo Gallery - Game 2
Post-Game Interview

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The St. Edward's baseball team dropped a 12-8 slugfest to Colorado Mesa Friday afternoon at the NCAA DII South Central Regional Tournament. The loss knocks the Hilltoppers out of this year's tournament.
 
Colorado Mesa (42-10) opened the scoring in the top of the second inning as they produced back-to-back doubles to score a run.
 
St. Edward's (39-16) answered with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. RANSOM LALONDE and DYLAN WATTS led off the inning with back-to-back walks. The Hilltoppers would gamble with two strikes, as CHRIS KILLEEN was asked to bunt. He placed it perfectly down the third base line for a bunt single. MILES WRIGHT came up big for St. Edward's by plating two runs for a 2-1 Hilltopper lead.
 
The Mavericks would get a run back in the top of the third on a squeeze bunt. St. Edward's would have an answer though as they came back to score three runs in the bottom of the inning. WES KOENIG and LaLonde started the inning with singles. Killeen picked up the first RBI on ball hit to the shortstop, which he could not field. C.J. Manning drove in two more runs to make it 5-2, St. Edward's through three innings.
 
After both teams went scoreless in the fourth inning, Colorado Mesa put another run on the board with an RBI triple from Austin Kaiser in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-3.
 
St. Edward's got the run back in the bottom of the fifth inning. Watts laced a one-out double to the gap in right, and would come around to score on another RBI-single by Manning.
 
The Mavericks responded in a big way, pounding out seven hits and scoring six runs in the top of the sixth inning as they batted around and took a 9-6 advantage.
 
The Hilltoppers put up a run in the eighth inning on a Koenig RBI-single and another run in the ninth on a RBI-fielder's choice by Manning. The only problem was that Colorado Mesa also pushed runs across, scoring one run in each of the last three innings.
 
COLLIN SHERROD (10-2) suffered the loss for the Hilltoppers, allowing eight runs (seven earned) on 12 hits, while striking out four batters in 5.1 innings of work.
 
Manning led the Hilltopper offense with a 3-for-4 day at the plate, driving in four runs. Koenig chipped in with two hits and an RBI.
 
"This was a hard-fought battle between two good teams," head coach Rob Penders said. "Both teams played well, they were just better today. This park gives up a lot of runs, and you always need more runs. We had to play for big innings, we just didn't have enough punch at the end and they did. You can't take anything away from either team, they are both high quality."
 
St. Edward's ends its season with a 39-16 record. It advanced to its third-straight NCAA South Central Regional and fourth in school history.