The Colorado Lumberjacks currently sit half a game out of first place in the Mile High Collegiate Baseball League. They showed off both their pitching and hitting prowess in their doubleheader sweep of the NoCo Roughnecks on Sunday, in front of a crowd of happy families on father’s day.

In Game 1 the Lumberjacks got some early momentum thanks to a series of early wild pitches from the Roughnecks starter. Three wild pitches thrown in one at bat were what allowed all three of the first runs of the game to score. Each time that the Roughnecks responded with a run, the Lumberjacks responded.

Their pitching was able to limit the run-scoring damage despite finding themselves in early inning baserunning jams. This was thanks to all three LumberJacks pitchers finding ways to both fool hitters on breaking pitches while also painting the corners of the strike zone to catch several Roughneck hitters off guard. Whenever a big play was needed from their defense, the pitchers got it. Each fielder provided reliable guardianship to the pitching staff on father’s day. They looked nearly flawless by not committing a single error in the game as the Lumberjacks emerged victorious 8-3 in Game 1.

The top of the batting order was instrumental in both victories. In Game 1, the top two batters in the lineup centerfielder Jake Barber and left fielder Quincy Miller combined for five hits. In Game 2’s 10-8 victory the top five hitters in the order each had multi-hit games, including Barber who had another big game with three hits and two runs scored.

“Just for the team I feel like if the first person gets on.. everyone gets hits after that,” said Barber. “It’s just kind of contagious. You get a leadoff hit and then it just keeps going, that’s how we get our runs in.”

The runs kept coming for the Lumberjacks as they took a commanding 8-3 lead in the second inning. Only little did Barber know when he scored the ninth run after a borderline safe call stealing third, that this run would wind up being the winning run.

The Lumberjacks looked to be on their victory as starter Isaac Hayen cruised through five innings of work striking out five batters. But in the top of the sixth the Roughnecks bats exploded with four runs plus another run in the seventh. This put the Lumberjacks on pins and needles as they now only had a two run lead. But Murphy Geinger was able to come into the game and shut the door on them.

“We just kind of noticed we had a good lead going,” said Barber on the team’s ability to hang on through a late scare. “If we could just stay within that lead and just keep doing the little things right that we would get out of there.”

A late climb by the Roughnecks was cut short by a Geinger pitch called strike three on the outside corner to get second baseman Brandon Aragon looking and complete the Father’s Day sweep and improve their record to 5-3.