CSU Pueblo's youth clinic, Pack the Park event, game a roaring success at Runyon Field in Pueblo

Pueblo packed the park.

The players packed the scorebook.

In a three-hour, 42-minute game Friday on windy Hobbs Field at the Runyon Sports Complex, the Colorado State University Pueblo baseball team survived to capture a 22-20 win over the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play win boosted the Pack's record to 25-18 overall and 16-8 in the conference. The Mountain Lions dipped to 17-26 and 12-13.

The game capped an eventful day and night at the ballpark.

The 17th annual Art & Lorraine Gonzales youth clinic and Pack the Park event was a success in more ways than one.

The clinic drew 800 youngsters and more than 2,000 fans showed up in the stands for the game. And after Ricky Gonzales, the nephew of Art & Lorraine threw out the first pitch, the ThunderWolves and Mountain Lions played a donnybrook.

CSU Pueblo first-year head coach Bobby Applegate was asked if he had ever been involved in such a crazy high-scoring game.

"Last week at Colorado Christian in 40 mile-an-hour winds," he said. "It seemed like every ball that got in the air was a home run. Today I felt like our guys were able to overcome because we had that experience last week.

"Our (starting) pitcher Tim McIntyre even though he had a little bit of a bend, didn't break and he gave us five solid innings and lengthen our bullpen and gave us a chance at the end."

Crooked numbers were the order of the day on the scoreboard. It wasn't a good day to be a pitcher. The teams combined for 42 runs on 41 hits and CSU Pueblo had to overcome seven errors to notch the win.

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Here are takeaways from Friday's event:

Fireworks from the start

The slugfest started early as UCCS scored five runs in the top of the first inning and CSU Pueblo countered with a seven-spot.

The 33-minute inning saw 20 batters come to the plate with the teams combining for 12 hits and 12 runs, including three doubles and a home run.

The Pack's Ty Lewis delivered one of the big blows with a bases-loaded triple.

Neither team scored in the second but the teams were at it again in the third as the Mountain Lions scored four runs to grab a 9-7 lead. But the T-Wolves responded, sending 10 batters to the plate in the bottom of the third and putting up another 7-spot for a 14-9 cushion.

The first three innings nearly took an hour and a half to play.

It was a harbinger of things to come.

Pack brings hitting shoes

Through five innings, the ThunderWolves had 17 runs on 16 hits. They scored seven in the first and third inning. Seven of the nine starters had at least two hits and all nine batters had driven in at least one run. And the game was barely half over.

By the sixth inning, every CSU Pueblo starter had at least one hit and all nine had driven in a run.

Brady Prewitt, Lewis, and Jacob Federico had three hits apiece. It was Prewitt's two-run home run in the eighth inning that triggered a five-run inning and enabled the Pack to overcome an 18-17 deficit. Prewitt finished with three RBIs, Lewis and Kysen Howard with four apiece.

The Pack finished with nine extra-base hits with home runs from Prewitt, Matt Shea, and Howard.

"It was super fun, back and forth so much," Prewitt said. "Just being able to do so much for the team and come through in the clutch. Fastball up."

"Our offense has been solid all year," Applegate said. "They've done a good job overcoming some things. Even though they tied it back up and took the lead we found a way to get the lead back."

Mountain Lions bring hitting shoes

Not to be outdone, UCCS had some firepower of its own. It scored five runs in the first, three in the third, a single run in the fifth, and seven in the sixth, tying the game at 17-17.

By the sixth inning, every UCCS starter had at least one hit and only two players didn't have a run batted in.

Tyler Richardson led the way for the Mountain Lions with three hits and five RBIs, including two doubles and a home run. UCCS had seven extra-base hits.

Winding down the season

CSU Pueblo and UCCS continued their four-game series with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday at Rawlings Field and wrap up the set with a single 1 p.m. nine-inning game on Sunday at Rawlings.

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Applegate put the entire Pack the Park day in perspective.

"What an exciting day," Applegate said. "We had over 800 kids in the clinic and our guys did a great job, had great energy. It was exciting to play in front of everybody with a big crowd like that. The guys were amped up, juiced up, and ready to go."

Following this weekend, the Pack wraps up RMAC play with a four-game series against league-leading Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction. The teams play a 6:05 p.m. game May 6, a 3:05 p.m. twi-night doubleheader May 7, and a single game at 1 p.m. May 8.

Clinic and parade spectacular

The annual baseball and softball clinic held before the game was a rousing success as players and coaches from the Pack teams and high schools educated youngsters on the key fundamentals of the game – hitting, fielding, running, and throwing.

The entire complex was filled with youngsters taking in the instruction and players were broken up into age groups.

The parade, featuring an estimated 800 players, was a sight to behold as youngsters dressed in their team uniforms, paraded around the outfield wall from right field to left field and then came onto the infield for introductions.

Chieftain senior sports reporter Jeff Letofsky can be reached by email at jletofsky@chieftain.com or on Twitter @jeffletofsky

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: CSU Pueblo baseball's Pack the Park event popular and successful again