LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Jake Williams became MSU Denver's all-time home run king in style with three blasts, and the Roadrunners mashed a program-record nine home runs while scoring in all seven innings of a 29-12 victory Monday at Colorado Christian that completed a sweep of a doubleheader as well as a four-game series.
 
Williams homered in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings, tying the career mark of 45 set by Rusty Befus (1988-92) with the first one, breaking it with the second and then extending it to 47 with his final flourish.
 
"That was pretty cool to see," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "These last three or four years, guys have been setting school records that have been held for a long time, and it's been fun to see them break them.
 
"It's always about the team first, but individually that's something that you'll remember for the rest of your life. We've had a lot of good players here who work hard, and Jake is no different – he battled back from injury (missing the 2022 season) and he's been a mainstay for us. He's had some injuries this year and hasn't shown quite as much power as in years past, but he's still very effective. Something like this record couldn't happen to a better kid."
 
MSU Denver rolled to its highest run total since a 31-3 victory over Mary (N.D.) on March 1, 2019.
 
The Roadrunners, who also won the nine-inning opening game 11-8, have now won 14 of their last 17 games to improve to 27-19 overall and 18-10 for second place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
"We scored a ton of runs in the series, and we swung the bats well," Strain said. "We had some lulls for a couple of innings in a couple of games where we didn't do too much. Our pitching was a little up and down and we needed to have our offense involved in order to win some games."
 
In the wild nightcap, in addition to Williams' blasts, Zach Schuler added two long balls, while Jesse Velders, Gavin Schmeh, Cal Walsh and Hayes Edens had one each. Edens capped a 10-run third inning with a grand slam.
 
Schuler now has 45 career homers, putting him tied for second with Befus all-time.
 
The Roadrunners banged out 23 hits, including four by Williams. Schuler had six RBIs, while Williams, Schmeh and Edens all had four. Velders and Andrew Biddle each scored five runs. The Roadrunners added seven doubles and a triple for a total of 17 extra-base hits while rolling up 59 total bases, breaking the program record of 56 set against Colorado Christian on March 5, 2010.
 
Velders also homered in the opening game and for the day was 5-for-8 with two doubles, two homers, six RBIs and eight runs. Velders is now up to .481 for the season, within range of the revered program-record .487 season batting average compiled by Torin Berge in 1987. (Berge hit .4872 in 1987, then hit .4870 in 1988).
 
"Offensively, it was a good day," Strain said.
 
Monday's opener was more competitive. The Roadrunners scored in each of the first four innings to build a 9-5 advantage, but Colorado Christian hung in there and scored three in the sixth off Kai Inouye, spoiling an otherwise effective three-inning relief outing.
 
Gavin Kaiser (2-0) worked 2 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out three while allowing three hits and no walks, and was awarded the win, then Zane Covey worked around two walks in the ninth to pick up his first save.
 
"Gavin threw the ball very well and Covey closed the game down," Strain said. "They both gave us some good innings  when we needed them."