DENVER – If you had ruled out the MSU Denver softball team as a possible RMAC Tournament title contender a couple weeks back after it was swept at home by Colorado Mesa, you may have reversed your thinking.
 
The Roadrunners, who earned an impressive split at then-No. 6 Colorado Christian to close the regular season – and the Cougars had to stage a seventh-inning rally to avoid losing the series and had to come from behind in their other win – head into the double-elimination Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament with confidence and momentum.
 
"It was nice to show up and look like ourselves in every aspect," said MSU Denver coach Annie Van Wetzinga, who said the momentum shifted in a series win against Colorado School of Mines. "Mines was a good turning point – that was a solid weekend for us. And I think we just took off from there. Our hitters looked much more comfortable in the box and all four of our pitchers were really solid. We just competed well, and our resiliency was awesome.
 
"That's the attitude and approach that you need going into postseason play."
 
Third-seeded MSU Denver (40-16 overall, 33-11 RMAC) plays sixth-seeded CSU Pueblo (22-33, 20-24) in a first-round game Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in Grand Junction, Colo.
 
Should the Roadrunners win, they'll play second-seeded Colorado Christian (47-6, 39-5) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. If they lose, the Roadrunners would drop into a 10 a.m. elimination game on Friday.
 
MSU Denver split a four-game series at CSU Pueblo earlier this season, extending its program-record winning streak to 21 games by sweeping a March 16 doubleheader before dropping a pair of one-run decisions the following day.
 
"They're athletic, have a lot of speed, and they've got one of the best hitters in the conference (Caitlyn Cole)," Van Wetzinga said. "They can get their offense going with their speed and their ability to handle the bat. So our key is, on the defensive end, contain their speed, and handle the short game better than we did down there.
 
"And offensively we want to build off what we've done. Their pitchers can get you off balance and get weak contact."
 
MSU Denver is second in Division II in hits (558) and doubles (121), fifth in triples (22), sixth in runs (400) and ninth in batting average (.354). And that's despite that tough weekend against Colorado Mesa and a slow start to the Mines series. That changed in the Colorado Christian series.
 
"A huge thing that we weren't getting was productive team at-bats," Van Wetzinga said. "We did some great things (against CCU) – obviously we had some big hits at big times – but we were getting bunts down and moving runners. Sacrifice flies. Moving runners over. Previously we weren't stringing productive at-bats together."
 
MSU Denver is fourth in the country with 22 sacrifice flies.
 
Leading the offense is left fielder Shelby Robb, who has a program single-season record of 85 hits to rank fifth nationally while batting .464 (14^th in Division II). Robb, who broke the 2009 program record of 79 hits by both Kellie Nishikida and Amber Roundtree, ranks fourth in Division II with 24 doubles.
 
The Roadrunners also got quality pitching performances last weekend from all four members of its staff – Jenna Medhus, Natalie Romero, Maddy Wilson and Cheyenne Prieto.
 
MSU Denver's big week helped it rise to No. 7 in the South Central Region rankings, putting the team in prime position to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.
 
Should the Roadrunners win the RMAC Tournament, they would earn an automatic berth into the eight-team South Central Regional of the NCAAs. If not, one more set of regional rankings determines six at-large qualifiers (the Lone Star Conference Tournament champion also earns an automatic bid).
 
"Those were four big games for lots of reasons," Van Wetzinga said. "And we looked at them as opportunities to compete against a good team and get us situated where we want to be going into the conference tournament.
 
"Now we just want to keep playing well, and then whatever happens, happens."