METROPOLITAN STATE OF DENVER (4-7)
at No.10 LUBBOCK CHRISTIAN (6-4)
Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 – 1 p.m.
Hays Field (Lubbock, Texas)
Radio: Online only
All-Time Series: LCU leads 3-0
Tweet #LCUvsMSUD
 
No.10 Lubbock Christian University closes a four-game series with Metro State Saturday at Hays Field. The Chaps five-game win streak is a season high and it has LCU seeking their first four-game series sweep since sweeping then-No.15 Rogers State in April of 2013. The contest marks the final game of an 11-game homestand. Metro State seeks to their first road win of the season (0-3) to avoid the sweep.
 
RANKINGS 
LCU: No.10 (Perfect Game), No.32 (Collegiate Baseball News)
MSUD: N/A
 
SCHEDULED STARTING PITCHER
 
LCU – Ricky Contreras (0-1, 5.79 ERA)
The reigning Heartland Conference Pitcher of the Year is scheduled for his third start and he is seeking his first win of the season. Contreras has not made it past the fifth inning in his prior two starts and opponents are hitting .333 against him this season. He went 4.1 innings in his prior start against Angelo State and allowed five runs off eight hits.       
 
MSUD – Beecher Strube (1-0, 6.55 ERA)
The Wyoming southpaw makes his third start of the season and seeking to improve on an 1-0 record. He has made two prior starts and coming off a win over Sioux Falls, going 6.0 innings and allowing three runs off six hits. Strube had five strikeouts and has nine strikeouts in 11 innings on the season. Opponents are hitting .380 against him.
 
LOOKING BACK
Ryan Johnson's one-hit shutout was one of two complete game pitching performances by the Chaps, as Daniel Crooks followed Johnson's no-hit bid allowing one run and receiving offensive support from a grand slam by Ryan Rogers, and LCU swept the Roadrunners in a doubleheader 5-0 and 9-1 Friday afternoon at Hays Field.
 
The left-handed Johnson took the spotlight in the opener with his complete game one-hit shutout. He faced three batters over the minimum, with three free passes offered to Roadrunners batters. Hunter Donaldson broke up the no-hit bid in the seventh inning with one out, as Johnson was two outs away from LCU's first no-hitter since Feb. 1, 2008. Metro State never had a runner in scoring position during the contest. The last one-hitter for the Chaps came Apr. 14, 2017 at Oklahoma Panhandle State, with the combination of Russell Reber, EJ Ramos, Nathan Dockery and Nick Hooper combining for the one-hitter. The last complete game one-hitter by a Chaps pitcher was conducted on Feb. 20, 2016 by Guillaume Blanchette, who completed the task against Angelo State.
 
Crooks (1-1) allowed one run off three hits in the first inning of his start, but settled down to allow one hit over the game's remainder. He allowed one hit to the final 21 batters faced and went a sequence of facing 13 consecutive batters without allowing a hit.
 
Rogers, 2-for-4 in the second game with four runs-batted-in, finished the day 5-for-9 with five RBI. Metro State was held to a combined five hits on the afternoon.
 
STREAKS
Nethercot has a seven-game hit streak heading into Saturday. Nethercot, who leads LCU with four multi-hit games, is hitting .423 (11-for-26) during the streak. He is also the only Chaps player that has reached base safely in all 10 games this season.
 
INSIDE THE SERIES WITH METRO STATE
.300 | Logan Soole is 3-of-10 (.300) from the plate to lead the Roadrunners in the series.
1 | Metro State has one hit in the series with runners in scoring position (1-for-12).
3 | Chaps have produced at least one hit with the bases loaded in three consecutive games.
5 | Ryan Rogers produced five hits Friday. The team's leader in batting average last season entered the game with four hits on the season.  He has six hits in the series (6-for-12, .500).
8 | Metro State has committed eight errors in the series. It has led to six unearned runs allowed in the series (one more run than MSUD has scored during the series).
.366 | Metro State, entering Friday's doubleheader hitting .366 as a team, was held to a combined .111 batting average on the day, going 5-for-45 at the plate, which has their average at .333 for the season (.205 in the series).
9 | LCU combined for nine hits with runners in scoring position on the day, going 5-for-10 in the second game. They entered the game with 10 on the season. They are 11-for-37 in the series (.297) in the situation.

HISTORY WITH METRO STATE
The Chaps and Roadrunners had never met prior to the current series. LCU improved to 4-3 against RMAC squads this season with the wins Friday.