GAME 1 - Mines 7, CSU-Pueblo 6 (8 inn.)
Clara Larson's walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighth gave Colorado School of Mines a 7-6 win in a see-saw opener against CSU-Pueblo.
The Thunderwolves rallied from 4-0 down to take the lead in the sixth, but Mines tied the game in the bottom of the seventh and then won it in extras to keep their series sweep hopes alive.
Sonoma Toot was a triple short of the cycle as she went 3-for-5 and drove in three runs, while Larson and
Megan Dickson had two-hit games with a RBI apiece.
Mines jumped out to a 4-0 lead as Toot doubled in
Dani Valerio in the first, then singled in
Pua Fujinaga in the second. Dickson launched her seventh home run of the year to lead off the third before
Katie Leiker beat a tag home later in the inning. CSU-Pueblo's comeback started with a three-run fourth as the Pack used three hits and a Mines error to manufacture their runs. Mines got a run back in the bottom half as Toot led off with a home run to center, making it 5-3.
CSU-Pueblo continued to chip away in the fifth with Shelby Bennett's single cutting the Mines lead to 5-4, and they took the lead in the sixth with Gabby Moreno doubling and Sabrina Felix driving in the go-ahead run to lead 6-5.
Mines got the tying run in the seventh thanks to some heads-up base-running. Dickson led off with a single and
Kelsey Buechler pinch-ran for her;
Katie Leiker attempted a sacrifice bunt but beat it out, and Buechler smartly wheeled around second to third. That set up Fujinaga's sacrifice fly on the next at-bat, allowing Buechler to tag and tie the game. In the eighth, reliever
Hallie Smith worked a 1-2-3 top half, and that left it up to Larson, who grooved a 1-1 pitch to left to win it with her 12th dinger of the year.
Smith (9-7) got the win with 2.2 innings of relief. Starter
Maddie Rogers (5.1 IP) allowed three earned as she departed a tie game. Mines chased starter K'Lee Kent in the third after she allowed four runs, but Andria Skeels (0-1) took the loss allowing three over five innings of relief.
GAME 2 - Mines 15, CSU-Pueblo 1 (5 inn.)
Mines' bats erupted for a season-high 15 runs to complete the series sweep in emphatic fashion, run-ruling CSU-Pueblo 15-1 in five innings.
The Orediggers put up crooked numbers in all four of their at-bats as they pounded 15 hits overall.
Clara Larson and
Megan Dickson each had three RBI as
Kara Jones,
Sydney Marchando, and
Loren Dempsey drove in two apiece. Larson was 3-for-4 while
Dani Valerio, Jones, and Dickson each had two-hit games.
As good as Mines' offense was,
Claire Stringfellow was equally excellent in the circle as she two-hit the Thunderwolves with a pair of strikeouts over five innings. Stringfellow threw just 57 pitches in facing three over the minimum.
CSU-Pueblo actually scored first, on a Michaela Burpee single in the top of the first, but that would be it as Mines embarked on an epic run off offensive fireworks. Larson and Jones strung together RBI doubles before Dempsey smacked a two-run single in the first to lead 4-0, and the second inning saw Dickson double, Leiker single, and
Pua Fujinaga double to score four more runs.
In the third, Larson tripled in
Sonoma Toot before scoring on Jones' single, and Dickson doubled again to make it an 11-1 blowout. Mines piled it on in the fourth with a Toot RBI single, Larson's single for her 11th RBI of the series, and a two-run Marchando single to make it 15-1.
Ten different Orediggers recorded hits in the game, including
Hana Mawlawi's first career hit in a fourth-inning pinch-hit appearance and Marchando's first career RBI with her pinch-hit single in the same inning.
CSU-Pueblo combined three pitchers with Hannah Anderson (2-15) taking the loss as 14 of the 15 runs were earned.
NEXT UP
Mines heads to Chadron State to open an RMAC series on Saturday.
