Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Bracket
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - Mines ended a memorable season in the RMAC Tournament on Friday, falling in games against #20 Colorado Mesa and CSU-Pueblo.
The Orediggers ran up against the hosts in a 15-5 winners' bracket game to start the day, then fell in an extra-innings thriller, 4-3, against CSU-Pueblo in an evening elimination game. A young Mines team - outperforming their expectations after being picked 11th in the preseason RMAC poll - ends at 20-24 with a 1-2 record in the RMAC Tournament.
Game 1 - #20 Colorado Mesa 15, Mines 5 (5 inn.)
#20 Colorado Mesa's Brooke Hodgson hit two home runs as the Mavericks defeated Colorado School of Mines 15-5 in five innings in an RMAC Tournament winners' bracket game on Friday.
Mines will now face CSU-Pueblo in an elimination game Friday night with a scheduled start time of 7:45 p.m. (likely to start later, however). Pueblo survived UCCS in a 4-3 walk-off to begin the day. Mesa advances to play MSU Denver in the winners' bracket final on Saturday.
The damage was done in the first inning as CMU batted around for eight runs, keyed by Hodgson's two-run home run. Maddie Rogers relieved Hallie Smith and was effective the rest of the way, but the Mavs tacked on two more in the third while Mines couldn't capitalize on baserunners in several innings.
The Orediggers left the bases loaded in the second after hits by Kara Jones, Boston Ludlow, and Katie Leiker, and stranded Sonoma Toot on third in the next inning. They finally broke through with a huge fourth inning. Up 10-0, Mesa brought in Rochelle Talamantes to relieve starter McKenzie Surface; Mines responded by producing five runs off the reliver.
Ludlow turned a lead-off double into a run on a double-steal with Leiker later in the inning, and Kara Walling's triple scored Leiker and Pua Fujinaga to prevent the run-rule at 10-3. Noehring extended the rally with a two-run double, and with no outs, the Mavs re-entered Surface in the circle, and she limited the damage with three straight outs.
The Mavs answered back in a big way as Hodgson smashed her second home run of the game to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Sarah Phillis added an RBI single to make it 12-5, but Rogers worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam to keep the margin at seven. The home side ended it in the fifth as Zoe Pakes drilled a homer to invoke the run rule and end it at 15-5.
Mines racked up 12 hits in the game, led by Leiker (3-for-3), Noehring (2-for-4, 2 RBI), Ludlow (2-for-3), and Jones (2-for-3). Dani Valerio, Walling, and Brielle Asato also added hits.
GAME 2 - CSU-Pueblo 4, Mines 3 (8 inn.)
Camilla Lopez's pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth made the difference as CSU-Pueblo came back from 3-1 down to win 4-3 in eight innings in an RMAC Tournament elimination game.
Paige Noehring homered for the first time this season to take a 2-1 lead in the third, but Pueblo answered with Vivian Ledesma's two-run home ruin in the sixth and Lopez's go-ahead double in the top of the eighth to advance to face Chadron State in a Saturday elimination game.
Mines twice had chances to win the game, stranding Brielle Asato on third after her lead-off single, and leaving runners on the corners in the eighth following singles by Leiker and Fujinaga.
Both teams stranded eight baserunners in the game, and each had seven hits.
Hallie Smith allowed three earned with eight strikeouts in the loss. Hope Davalos struck out six allowing two earned to get the win for Pueblo.
Noehring and Asato both notched a pair of hits to lead Mines at the plate.
