Box Score GOLDEN, Colo. – Down to their final out in the bottom of the 10th inning, senior Jack Bevan rocketed a two-RBI double into left centerfield to give the Colorado School of Mines an improbable 11-10 comeback over MSU-Denver on Saturday, April 23 at Jim Darden Field.
Mines (25-11, 18-6) trailed the entire game and needed heroics from Nate Olinger in the eighth to even get the game into extra innings against a hot-hitting Roadrunners (14-20, 10-14) squad.
MSU-Denver reliever Cale O'Donnell quickly put two away in the bottom of the 10th and had Mines clearly against the proverbial wall down 10-9. The game stayed alive though when an error by MSUD's shortstop allowed Griffin Jones to reach base. Caleb Thomas then worked a five-pitch walk to get to Jack Bevan.
On the first pitch he saw from O'Donnell, Bevan smacked a double into deep left centerfield that easily scored Jones. Thomas then raced around the bases from first and slid in home – just barely beating the tag – to give CSM the unbelievable victory.
As mentioned above, the Oredigger were lucky to even get that far as they trailed 9-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning. Looking to their all-American, Nate Olinger came up with runners on and second and third with an out and crushed an absolute no-doubter over the leftfield fence to tie the game up and bring the Oreddiggers completely back from a 7-0 deficit.
Once the game moved into extra innings, MSU-Denver proceeded to load the bases on two outs. Now with Olinger on the bump, Mines appeared ready to get out of the frame when he induced a roller back to third base, but it wasn't meant to be as an error allowed Metro to take the lead and set the game up for Bevan's dramatics.
The Orediggers did not get off to an ideal start as they fell behind 7-0 after the first inning and a half. The Roadrunners got a three-run homerun from Cale O'Donnell in the first inning which largely led to the large deficit.
Mines got one of the runs back in the bottom half of the second inning on a Mikey Gangwish RBI groundout.
Then, with two outs in the bottom of the third, Mines exploded for five runs to narrow the Metro State advantage to 7-6.
The two-out rally started when Cody Marvel reached first base after a fielding error by the Roadrunners shortstop. After a Jace Selsor walk, Joe Popp doubled to leftfield to plate the first pair of runs. Then, after a Jack Bevan hit-by-pitch, Gangwish also doubled into leftfield to score another two runs.
The final run of the frame came one at-bat later as Kyle Alexander got RBI single to plate Gangwish.
MSU-Denver responded though a half inning later when they grabbed two of the runs back on an Andrew Paust RBI single and a Nick McCaskey sac fly.
The runs halted over the next three innings as Mines reliever Clark Martin and Metro State reliever Hunter Hogoboom quieted down each other's lineup.
With the series now in hand, Mines will look for the sweep as they and the Roadrunners tangle one more time tomorrow afternoon at noon.
