PUEBLO – Playing in its first postseason contest since the 2008 season, the Colorado School of Mines baseball team played their fifth-straight game against No. 15 Colorado Mesa and fell to the RMAC regular-season champion Mavericks by a 13-5 final on Wednesday afternoon during the first round of the RMAC Baseball Tournament at Rawlings Field in Pueblo.
Mines (16-29) will now face fifth-seeded Nebraska-Kearney on Thursday at noon in the consolation bracket.
After posting two wins over the Mavericks (39-12) on Sunday, Mines had trouble getting the offense going and fell behind 9-0 through the first four innings before it was able to push a run across.
Brett Olsson scored the first run for Mines in the top of the fifth after coming around from third on an error by the Mavericks' shortstop.
Colorado Mesa then put four runs across the board in the bottom of the sixth inning to increase its lead to 13-1 and that score would hold until the top of the ninth inning.
Mines added four more runs in the top of the ninth when Kyle Wallace led off with a single through the right side of the infield, and he moved to second on a single up the middle by Garrett Schirmacher. Olsson grounded out to third base in the next at-bat and both Wallace and Schirmacher moved up a base. Charlie Basil then singled to second base which scored Wallace and Schirmacher, trimming the Maverick lead to 13-3. A groundout by Evan Brown pushed the next run around and Bobby Egeberg knocked in the last run for Mines on a single to third base that scored Piehl.
Senior Matt Poulin took the loss for the Orediggers in his second-straight start against the club after surrendering 10 hits and seven earned runs over 2-2/3 innings before giving way to Peter Herrin to get the final out of the third inning.
Brad Touhey, Eric Shannon and Chris Pickett combined for five innings of relief with Shannon and Pickett posting scoreless frames.
Recently named RMAC Pitcher of the Year Jared Christensen captured his NCAA-leading 12th win of the year after allowing four earned runs over 8-1/3 innings with three strikeouts.
Offensively, Mines was led by Basil and his two hits in four at-bats with two RBI. Piehl and Schirmacher both finished 2-for-4 as well and each recorded a run scored.
