GOLDEN – Led by a string of multi-hit efforts from the top half of the batting order, as well as a quality start from freshman righty Christian Rooney, the Colorado School of Mines baseball team capped-off a four-game sweep of visiting Adams State with a 14-5 win in Sunday's series finale at Jim Darden Field in Golden.
Mines (12-15, 10-10 RMAC) carried over its potent offensive attack from the first three games of the series with 14 hits and the same number of runs on Sunday for a total of 65 scores over the four-game stretch.
The conference sweep was the first for an Oredigger squad since the team captured all four games against visiting Colorado Christian on March 20-22, 2008.
Batters No. 1 through No. 5 on the Oredigger squad posted 11 of the squad's 14 hits during the contest, led by a 3-for-5 effort from All-American Bobby Egeberg, who continued his torrid hitting over the past few weekends with a 3-for-5 effort with two runs scored and two RBI.
The speedster added three steals on three attempts and reached base or produced a run in 5-of-6 plate appearances out of the leadoff spot.
Sophomore third baseman Zach Bothwell extended his current hitting streak to eight games after finishing 2-for-2 with two runs scored and an RBI on Sunday and walked four times to reach base in all six plate appearances. Sunday's effort pushed his average on the season to .344 and upped his on-base percentage to .455.
The Aurora product led six qualified players with a .500 or better batting average during the weekend with a .692 mark and a team-best .800 on-base percentage.
Freshman Nate Olinger capped off a 10-for-18 weekend with a 2-for-6 effort on Sunday. He added three RBI and a run scored as well.
Jordan Williams posted a 2-for-5 day at the dish with a run scored to push his hitting streak to eight games while Charlie Basil scored once and knocked in two on a 2-for-4 batting line.
Senior Garrett Schirmacher finished 0-for-2 but scored three runs after being issued two free passes and getting hit by a pitch in the fourth inning.
Rooney (2-3) posted his third quality start of the season with seven innings of one-run ball and a season-high nine strikeouts. He scattered seven hits and one earned run and allowed just one extra-base hit. He struck out at least one batter in six of his seven frames, including three multiple punch-outs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
The squad will return to action on Tuesday, April 9, with a nonconference, single-game matchup against Colorado Christian at Jim Darden Field in Golden.
