DENVER, Colo. - Colorado School of Mines picked up a split with #12 Colorado Mesa, halving the series 2-2 with a win in Sunday's opening game.
The Orediggers (7-10, 6-3 RMAC) held on for a 5-4 win in the morning before falling 4-2 in the afternoon. In both games the team with fewer hits ended up winning as home runs and extra-base hits in key spots fueled each victory. It was the first time since 2012 that Mines had split or won a four-game series with Colorado Mesa; Mines had not even beaten Mesa since 2013 heading into this weekend's series.
Boston Ludlow had a huge day for Mines, going 4-for-6 including 3-for-3 in the first game, while
Clara Larson drove in four runs during the day.
GAME 1 - Mines 5, Colorado Mesa 4
Mines ran out to a 5-0 lead, but had to hold off a rallying Mavericks squad to win the day's opener 5-4.
Sparked by
Clara Larson's bases-loaded triple and
Boston Ludlow's first home run of the season, the Orediggers led 5-0 after three innings before Colorado Mesa put a four-spot on the board in the fifth to threaten in the game.
Boston Ludlow was 3-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI in the game, recording her 100th career hit in the process.
Mines' first run came in their first at-bat after
Kendall Murphy smacked a lead-off double and moved to third on
Katie Leiker's single. Leiker stole second but the ball got away from the second baseman, and Murphy took off on the error to lead 1-0. In the second, Ludlow led off with a single and Murphy and Leiker walked to set up Larson, who drilled a triple off the fence in left to make it a 4-0 game; Ludlow then jacked a two-out solo shot in the third to extend the lead to 5-0.
A four-run fifth inning brought CMU back in the game, however, with the rally starting on Brook Doumer's RBI single and continuing on Jordyn Hays' three-run home to right to cut the lead to 5-4.
Sydney Marchando got out of the inning with a groundout, and reliever
Claire Stringfellow made quick work of the sixth and seventh innings to secure the victory.
Marchando (5-3) picked up the win with five innings that included four strikeouts. Stringfellow allowed just one hit in facing seven batters to pick up her first save. CMU starter Shea Mauer (1-1) was chased in the second allowing four runs, with Kimbri Herring going 4.1 innings in relief and allowing a run while striking out five.
GAME 2 - Colorado Mesa 4, Mines 2
Kellie Mrofcza's fifth-inning home run broke a 2-2 deadlock and handed Colorado Mesa a 4-2 victory in the finale.
Mines battled back from an early deficit in the game and outhit CMU 8-7, but couldn't convert those hits into runs as McKenzie Surface remained unbeaten at 6-0 and Kimbri Herring picked up the save for the Mavericks.
Clara Larson and
Kara Jones both had two-hit games as Larson hit her first home run of the season;
Kendall Murphy also went yard for her first career round-tripper.
Murphy led off with that home run, a shot to straightaway center, to make it 1-0, but CMU answered with two runs in the second as Tegan Woosley blooped a double down the line to score one run, and Lauren Wedman's sacrifice fly made it 2-1.
Mines tied the game in the third as Larson sent a no-doubter over the leftfield fence to make it 2-2, but Kellie Mrofcza answered in kind in the fifth, hitting a two-run shot to center to take the lead. That's how it would stay as Mines couldn't scored
Megan Dickson in the sixth after her leadoff double, and Herring put Mines down in order in the seventh.
Claire Stringfellow suffered the loss in the complete-game effort. Both Surface and Herring struck out two.
NEXT UP
Mines will play a pod series at Chadron State with Adams State next weekend.
