GOLDEN – Visiting Colorado Mesa used a three-run triple in the fifth inning to bust open a pitchers' duel and take its first lead of the ballgame en route to an 11-4 win over the Colorado School of Mines baseball team on Friday at Jim Darden Field in Golden. 

The loss kept Mines (5-10, 2-5 RMAC) from successfully opening an eight-game home stand and gave Colorado Mesa (13-4, 7-0 RMAC) its ninth-straight victory as well as its third win in the series over the last five games. 

The two squads will continue the series tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at noon. Due to the possibility of rain in the early evening on Saturday, first pitch tomorrow has been moved up an hour from the originally scheduled 1 p.m. start time. 

The trio of Charlie Basil, Evan Brown and Kyle Wallace combined for six hits on the afternoon to lead the Mines offense, with Brown knocking in a pair of runs on two RBI singles in the first and fifth innings. 

He finished 2-for-4 and upped his team-leading batting average to .391 on the season. 

Basil reached base four times and scored once on a 2-for-3 batting line while Wallace scored once and knocked in one on a 2-for-4 effort at the plate. 

Freshman righty Christian Rooney (1-2) took the loss after allowing six earned runs on five hits over 5.1 innings. He walked three and struck out three over a 90-pitch outing. Michael Tanner and Peter Herrin combined to allow five runs (three earned) over 3.2 innings of relief. 

Preseason RMAC Pitcher of the Year Nolan Snell (3-1) took the win after allowing three earned runs over a 129-pitch, seven-inning performance. 

The first of Brown's RBI singles gave Mines a 1-0 lead after one inning, and the squad pushed that lead to 2-0 in the fourth with an RBI single by Wallace to right which scored Bobby Egeberg from second. 

The Mavericks used a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded to plate their first run in the top of the fifth inning, and a bases-clearing triple two batters later by Mitch Corwin gave the visitors their first lead of the game at 4-2. 

Mines answered in the home half of the frame with the second of Brown's RBI singles which scored Matthew Pullos and cut the deficit to 4-3. 

CMU added five runs in the next half inning to take a 9-3 lead and would add another in the eighth to push the lead to 10-3 before Mines answered with an RBI single to right by Travis Ramos which scored Wallace and cut the lead to 10-4. 

The Mavericks added one more in the ninth to capture the 11-4 win. 

The two teams will continue the series tomorrow with a doubleheader starting at noon at Jim Darden Field in Golden.