Colorado State baseball triumphed through the cold to win their home opening series against Williston State College with a record of 3-1.

The Rams lost their opening series last month, so they were hoping to redeem themselves and pick up some wins in the early season.

Colorado State played double-headers on Feb. 28 and March 1 in the blistering cold. The Rams won their first game 10-8 after trailing the first two innings, lost their second game 4-0, won their third game 2-1 on a walk-off by Michael Forlenza and closed out the series winning 11-5.

Ryker McDaniel did not seem bothered by the cold as he played the role of the designated hitter in the first game of the series. McDaniel’s first at-bat resulted in an RBI single. McDaniel followed up that single with two doubles and added on two more RBI’s in clutch situations.

“It felt great, it felt really good,” McDaniel said. “I kept things simple and attacked fastballs and had good results.”

Daniel Terao, another key performer, came in for relief in pressure scenarios the first and third game of the series. He had a total of 98 pitches, eight-strikeouts, four walks, gave up four hits and only allowed two runs.

“That’s what the coaches expect me to do,” Terao said. “That’s where I just bring my bulldog mentality out. I love those situations. Baseball is a team sport. It wasn’t just all me, everyone did their part.”

Coach Troy Tolar had high praise for his team following the series victory.

“I think overall, we did really well today and this weekend,” Tolar said. “We improved a lot throughout the weekend. We asked our guys to get better every single day and I think that’s what we saw throughout the whole weekend.”

The team will return to City Park Field March 8 and 9 for a series against Colorado School of Mines, with the first pitch scheduled for noon on March 8. It will be their last home action until mid-April. 

Tyler Meguire can be reached at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @TMeguire.