PUEBLO – The Colorado School of Mines baseball team stayed neck-and-neck with CSU-Pueblo for seven innings, but an eight-run home half of the eighth frame proved to be the difference in a 13-5 victory for CSUP at Rawlings Field in Pueblo on Friday evening. 

Mines (11-22, 10-19 RMAC) fell behind 4-0 through the first two innings, but came back with a pair of runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to tie up the ballgame. 

Charlie Basil reached base on a fielder's choice and was brought home on an RBI double by Garrett Schirmacher for Mines' first run of the ballgame. A balk moved Schirmacher to third and the junior came in to score on a wild pitch, trimming the CSUP lead to 4-2 through four innings. 

A RBI single by Zach Bothwell through the left side scored Jordan Williams in the fifth, and Tyler Phan Thornton added another run when he scored on an error by the ThunderWolves' (24-15, 21-8 RMAC) catcher, tying up the ballgame at 2-2. 

Mines took its first lead of the contest in the top of the sixth when consecutive singles by Schirmacher, Brett Olsson and Shane Johnson scored Schirmacher, putting Mines ahead 5-4. 

CSUP tied up the game with a run in the bottom of the seventh and put the game away with an eight-run eighth to take a win in the series opener. 

Ben Gilman earned a no decision after allowing one earned run and nine hits over six innings with five strikeouts. Brady Smith suffered the loss after surrendering four earned runs on two hits over 1-1/3 innings in relief. 

Schirmacher led the offense with two runs scored and an RBI on 3-for-3 batting while Williams added a run scored on 2-for-4 hitting. Johnson finished 2-for-3 with an RBI, Olsson finished 2-for-3 and Bobby Egeberg added 2-for-5 hitting to account for the five multi-hit efforts by the Oredigger offense. 

The two teams will continue the series with a doubleheader beginning tomorrow at 1 p.m.