Todd Baxter’s four goals and Cameron Flint’s hat trick powered the 10th-ranked University of Denver men’s lacrosse team to a 12-9 victory over No. 4 Duke before a crowd of 6,000 fans Saturday in Bethpage, N.Y.
The Blue Devils (8-4) jumped out to a 3-1 lead. But the Pioneers (8-2) tied the score 5-5 just 33 seconds before halftime on Baxter’s 17th goal of the season.
DU received unassisted goals from Baxter, a senior captain from Eden Prairie, Minn., and Chase Carraro early in the third quarter. Baxter scored two more goals to give the Pioneers a 9-6 lead and Duke didn’t come closer than two goals the rest of the way.
“This is a great win not only for our program, but for the sport of lacrosse in the area,” said DU coach Bill Tierney. “I am so proud of the way our team competed. I think we really showed a lot of people what Denver lacrosse is all about.”
Carraro and Eric Law, a sophomore midfielder from Arapahoe High School, had two goals each for DU.
The Pioneers were outshot 42-34 and lost the turnover battle 15-10, but collected more groundballs (28-26) than the Blue Devils.
DU goalkeeper Jamie Faus stopped 16 shots, including seven in the fourth quarter.
Tucson trips Sky Sox with strong start.
Colorado Springs pitcher Clayton Mortensen gave up five runs in the first inning of the Triple-A Sky Sox’s 9-7 loss to Tucson at Security Service Field.
Colorado Springs’ bullpen held Tucson scoreless for five innings while the offense mounted a comeback in the Pacific Coast League game. The Sky Sox scored two runs in the fifth inning, three runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth.
Colorado Springs’ bullpen hasn’t allowed an earned run in two games, a stretch spanning 10 innings.
Grand slam not enough for CSU.
Chelsea Biglow hit her fourth home run of the season, a grand slam in the first inning, but the Colorado State softball team (7-29, 0-2 Mountain West Conference) blew a 5-0 lead and lost 15-11 to San Diego State in Fort Collins.
CSU pitcher Alexa Cash (1-12) blanked the Aztecs (26-14, 2-0) the first two innings. But she gave up a run in the third inning and three in the fourth, and was pulled in the fifth after allowing 11 earned runs.
• Two days after getting swept 2-1 and 10-7 in a doubleheader by Division II Adams State, Northern Colorado (5-28) responded with its own sweep, defeating Idaho State 5-3 and 10-0 in Greeley.
UNC splits baseball doubleheader.
Northern Colorado’s baseball team split a Great West Conference doubleheader with the New York Institute of Technology, winning 15-3 and losing 6-5 in Old Westbury, N.Y.
The Bears, who won Friday’s series opener 11-4, are 2-1 in conference games and 5-22 overall.
“We had a rough second game (Saturday) with four errors,” said UNC coach Carl Iwasaki. “But I thought we played hard and will do so again (today, when the four-game series wraps up). Timely hitting was the key to (Saturday’s) Game 1. Jarod (Berggren) hit the ball really well all day.”
Berggren, a junior outfielder from Broomfield High School, was 4-for-8 in the doubleheader. All four of his hits (three doubles and a home run) were for extra bases, and he had six RBIs in the first game.
Ben Packard, a junior from Niwot, homered in the opener and had four hits in the doubleheader.
