PUEBLO – A day after posting a 12-8 victory behind an eight-run fifth inning, the Colorado School of Mines baseball team used a five-run seventh to post an 8-5 victory over CSU-Pueblo in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at Rawlings Field.
Mines (13-23, 12-20 RMAC) continues to hold a lead on the sixth spot in the RMAC standings with the victory. The Orediggers sit four games up on Metro State with two weekends to play before the end of the regular season. The top six teams in the conference qualify for the RMAC Tournament.
After falling behind 1-0 through the first inning, Mines pushed two runs across in the second when Brett Olsson and Tyler Phan Thornton ripped a single and double to left, respectively, to put runners on second and third. Groundouts by Matthew Pullos and Zach Bothwell scored Olsson and Thornton, putting Mines up 2-1.
The Orediggers added another run in the top of the fourth, when a leadoff walk by Bothwell quickly became a double after a stolen base. He moved to third on Evan Brown's groundout to second and a sacrifice fly by Bobby Egeberg scored him to push the Mines' lead to 3-1.
CSU-Pueblo added two runs in the bottom of the inning to tie up the game, and took a lead with a run in the bottom of the sixth to go up 4-3.
Mines then put the game out of reach with a five-spot in the seventh, highlighted by a two-RBI double by Pullos and a two-RBI single by Egeberg. Thornton recorded his own RBI single to start the rally.
The ThunderWolves added one run in the seventh, but Chris Pickett pitched three innings of relief while giving up two hits and striking out four batters to pick up his second save of the year.
Peter Herrin captured his third win of the season after scattering eight hits and four earned runs over six innings of work. He struck out three batters and faced 28 batters during his 119-pitch outing.
Egeberg finished 2-for-3 with three RBI to lead the offense while Thornton added two runs and an RBI on 3-for-4 hitting. Olsson scored twice on 2-for-5 hitting and Pullos knocked in three runs and scored once on a 1-for-4 effort at the plate.
The Orediggers will kick off an eight-game home stand to end the regular season next weekend when they host Metro State in the first game of a four-game series beginning on Friday, April 27, at 6 p.m.
