GOLDEN, Colo. – Junior pitcher
Tyler Blomster dazzled on the mound Friday night in a complete-game, one-hit shutout as the Colorado School of Mines Baseball team swept its doubleheader against MSU Denver 14-7 and 5-0 at Jim Darden Field.
Blomster (9-2) got the start in game two and gave up just one hit with no walks while striking out 10 batters over seven innings. He faced 22 hitters, just one over the minimum of 21, and needed just 71 pitches to complete the win. The result was an opponent batting average of .048, an ERA of 0.00 and a WHIP of 0.142.
Walter Pennington (8-3) was the starter and victor in game one thanks to six innings of five-run, 12-hit baseball and four strikeouts.
Nick Gardner and
Colin Morris both assisted in the win and combined for four more strikeouts.
At the plate, it was
Trevor Howard batting .833 in the doubleheader. He racked up five runs and seven RBI on five hits including a home run and a double.
Derek Daly joined the power parade by hitting two home runs in game one. Daly finished the day hitting .571 with two runs and five RBI.
Joe Popp,
Trevor Kehe and
Jace Selsor all hit over .500 over two games and combined to score seven runs while notching three RBI. Also scoring twice for the Orediggers were
Mikey Gangwish and
Danny McDermott. Kehe, Popp and Gangwish contributed one double apiece to the cause.
With the doubleheader sweep, Mines (34-11, 25-9 RMAC) wraps up the #2 seed in the RMAC Tournament. Overall, the Orediggers combined to hit .422 as a team, scoring 19 runs on 27 hits in Friday's doubleheader. Mines' pitching staff posted a combined ERA of 3.94 while holding opposing hitters to just .258 at the plate with 18 total strikeouts. MSU Denver (27-20, 19-15 RMAC) saw its losing streak extended to six games. The Roadrunners struck out 15 batters over the two games but managed just three extra-base hits. MSU Denver's pitching staff also walked 10 Oredigger batters.
Game One – Mines 14, MSU Denver 7
The Orediggers scored early and they scored often. Two zeros in the opening frame proved only an outlier in Mines' offensive explosion in game one of the series. It all started in the second inning with a one-out single from
Trevor Howard. Advancing to second on a wild pitch was simply academic as Daly worked a three-ball, one-strike count before jacking a no-doubt dinger to straightaway center field. Two more singles off the bats of
Caden Bonds and Popp brought about a two-run double from Kehe for a 4-0 lead.
MSU Denver did scratch out one in the top of the third, but Mines picked up right where it had left off in the bottom half.
Danny McDermott drew a one-out walk and
Trevor Howard picked up his teammate by smacking a RBI-double down the left-field line. Then,
Trevor Howard went from first base to home plate on Bonds' RBI-single. That made it 6-1 in favor of the home team.
The fourth inning proved to be the Orediggers' biggest inning of the night. Mines racked up five runs on six hits for an 11-1 lead. All six hits in the frame were singles. Two more runs in the sixth and one in the seventh inning capped the scoring for the Orediggers. On the other side of the ball, MSU Denver tallied three runs of its own in the top of the sixth. However, Mines curbed the Roadrunners' momentum in the seventh stanza in its biggest defensive stand of the night. In short, MSU Denver loaded the bases with no outs and only managed one run thanks to the combined efforts of Gardner and Morris out of the bullpen. Gardner struck out one batter for the first out of the inning. Then, Morris used four pitches to get two fly balls and end the threat.
Two more runs for the visitors in the top of the eighth would end the scoring for both teams. Morris caught one batter looking in the eighth and two more in the ninth to close out the win. Mines finished the game with 14 runs on 20 hits for a combined batting average of .476. The Orediggers also clocked two home runs and three doubles in the winning effort. Daly ended the game with four hits while four others accumulated three hits each.
Game Two – Mines 5, MSU Denver 0
While it took a full team effort to get the win, two names can summarize all of the game-two victory –
Tyler Blomster and
Trevor Howard. Blomster, as previously stated, went the distance on 71 pitches while striking out 10 batters.
Trevor Howard accounted for four of Mines' five runs, going 2-for-2 with four RBI and a dinger.
Trevor Howard got the Orediggers on the board in the bottom of the second inning with a two-run home run to left-center field. Gangwish came in to score on the long ball, giving Mines a 2-0 lead. On the other side of the ball, Blomster and the Oredigger defense retired MSU Denver in order through the first 4.2 innings. Blomster struck out one Roadrunner in each of the first four frames. Additionally, Bonds turned a double play in the second inning on a ground ball near second base that he picked then tossed to Selsor at first.
In the top of the fifth inning, Blomster fanned two more batters before MSU Denver managed its first hit of the game. It would be the visitor's only baserunner of the contest. The junior righty responded to the base knock by striking out the side in the sixth and used just eight pitches in the seventh to close out the win.
Trevor Howard accounted for the final, 5-0 tally with a single in the bottom of the fifth that resulted in three runs scoring thanks, in part, to two Roadrunner errors on the play.
Game two lasted just 90 minutes. Selsor also went 2-for-2 at the plate. Five different Orediggers scored with all of the offense coming from the first five spots in the batting order.
Trevor Howard was also hit by a pitch. Popp smacked a double and
Noah Kuzma laid down a sacrifice bunt.
NOTABLES
- Since 2016, Mines is 16-4 in the ongoing series against MSU Denver.
- Blomster tied his own Mines record for single-season wins with his ninth victory of 2019. He is now tied for #4 on the RMAC's all-time wins list with a career mark of 23-5.
- Blomster also moved up to #2 on the Orediggers' all-time strikeouts list with 196 in his career.
- Daly's two home runs are his first since hitting three against Sioux Falls on March 29.
- Game one marks Daly's third multi-home run game of the season.
- Daly now has 16 bombs on the year and 30 in his career which rank #2 and #4 on Mines' single-season and all-time lists, respectively.
- Selsor's five total hits on Friday tie the senior for #6 on the RMAC's career hits list.
- Pennington's victory gives the junior lefty eight wins in 2019, ranking #2 on Mines' single-season wins list.
-
Trevor Howard's home run marks his fifth bomb of the season.
- Gangwish has reached base safely in 35 consecutive games.
- Head coach
Robby Bales is 34-11 in his first season at the helm.
WHAT'S NEXT
Mines closes the regular season and celebrates Senior Day on Saturday with a doubleheader against MSU Denver starting at 12 p.m. Live stats and video will be available at www.minesathletics.com.
Keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all season long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.
