Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

 

Colorado School of Mines clinched an RMAC Tournament berth on the final day of the regular season, splitting its doubleheader with Colorado Christian to extend its season.

The Orediggers (19-22, 17-17 RMAC) dropped a slugfest in the opener 9-7, but won the final game 6-5 on Sonoma Toot's eighth-inning walk-off single.

Mines will now head to Grand Junction to play in the RMAC Tournament beginning Thursday, April 28. The Orediggers will be the #5 seed and face Regis in their opening game; the full tournament schedule and details will be released by the RMAC later on Sunday. Mines will make its first tournament appearance since 2013.

Mines actually clinched their spot earlier in the day thanks to a pair of Western New Mexico losses, but the game two win proved important for seeding purposes as a loss would have dropped them to the seventh seed.

GAME ONE - Colorado Christian 9, Mines 7
Mines and CCU combined for 24 hits, but the Orediggers came out on the wrong end of a 9-7 decision in the day's opener.

Kara Jones and Pua Fujinaga each drove in a pair of runs for Mines, but the Orediggers were undone by four errors in the game. CCU's Amy Edison hit a three-run home run in the fifth that proved decisive, and the Cougars stopped a last-gasp Mines comeback attempt.

CCU took a 1-0 lead on Kristina Billante's single in the first, but Mines answered in a big way. With Paige Noehring and Toot in scoring position, Jones' sacrifice fly tied it, and Boston Ludlow singled to the gap to pull ahead 2-1. After Katie Leiker doubled, Fujinaga sliced an opposite-field single to bring two more runs in and give Mines a 4-1 lead.

CCU put up their own four-spot in the third, manufacturing their runs in a three-hit, two-error inning to lead 5-4. Edison's homer in the fifth extended the lead to 8-4, but Leiker's single to plate Ludlow cut the lead to 8-5 in the fifth. CCU canceled that out with Letty Valenzuela's RBI single in the top of the sixth, but Mines didn't quit, drawing closes when Jones drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth. In the seventh, they mounted a comeback attempt that produced a run when Brielle Asatodrove in Leiker, but the Cougars got out of the inning with the tying run at the plate.

Tana Feiner (13-14) won for the second time in the weekend, allowing seven earned and striking out two. Hallie Smith (12-11) allowed eight earned and struck out seven in the loss.

GAME TWO - Mines 6, Colorado Christian 5 (8 inn.)
Sonoma Toot's eighth-inning walk-off single won it for Mines after a wild back-and-forth game to end the regular season.

Mines gave up a 5-1 lead as CCU scored four runs across the sixth and seventh innings, and the Oredigger defense had to step up to prevent the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth before winning it in the bottom half.

Mines went ahead 3-1 in the second as Fujinaga came home on an error and Noehring singled in two runs, and Jones came in on an error in the third after the CCU shortstop mishandled the ball on Fujinaga's steal attempt at second. Ludlow made it 5-1 in the fourth when she drove in Noehring.

CCU chipped away in the sixth, with Charlotte Romero crossing on a double-steal and Rylee Halenar singling in a run to cut it to 5-3. In the seventh, CCU put a runner on third after Billante's triple, and Romero singled her in before Valenzuela reached on an error to tie the game.

After Mines went out scoreless in the seventh, CCU threatened in extras. With runners on second and third and one out, a high pitch got away from Jones and went to the backstop; the catcher managed to corral the ball and get it to Smith covering home in time to throw out Halenar, and Smith induced a line-out to end the inning with the go-ahead run on third.

Asato and Noehring singled back-to-back to start the Mines eighth, and Valerio's groundout moved both over. That set up Toot, who drilled a ball off the third baseman's foot and into left field to allow Asato to score the winning run.

Maddie Rogers took no decision in the start, leaving with the lead in the seventh. Rogers allowed only one earned run and struck out five, retiring eight in a row at one point as she cruised through the early innings. Smith (13-11) earned the win after coming on in the seventh and allowing the tying run, but her heads-up defensive play in the eighth saved the game. Shelby Diffenderfer (3-10) went the distance and allowed three earned out of six runs for CCU.