DENVER - Colorado School of Mines took on defending national champion #1 Augustana, but the Vikings proved worthy of their preseason ranking as they won 5-0 and 9-3 at MSU Denver's Regency Athletic Complex.
GAME 1 - #1 AUGUSTANA 5, MINES 0
Augustana's Ashley Mickschl threw a 10-strikeout shutout to pace the Vikings in a 5-0 win to start the day.
Mines battled behind a solid start from
Sydney Marchando, but Augustana did all of their scoring in the fourth and sixth innings while working out of trouble defensively.
Hana Mawlawi led Mines at the plate with a 2-for-3 game as the Orediggers generated six hits to Augie's seven.
Marchando carried a no-hitter into the fourth as she dueled with Mickschl, but the Vikings broke through on an error in the fourth that allowed the first run to cross before Christina Pickett's RBI single made it 2-0. Augustana piled on in the sixth with three runs, first off a two-run single by Pickett and then on an Abbie Lund groundout to lead 5-0.
Mines had chances to score, leaving Marchando and Boyd on the corners in the fourth and
Clara Larson on second in the sixth, but Mickschl (5-0) worked out of each jam as she walked none in the game.
Lauren Decker relieved Marchando (2-2) in the sixth and finished the game with 1.2 innings of no-hit ball, striking out two.
GAME 2 - #1 AUGUSTANA 9, MINES 3
Mines battled in the afternoon game, but 14 Augustana hits to produce nine runs proved too much as the Vikings won 9-3.
Mines took a tie game into the fifth before Augustana rallied for six runs over their last three at-bats to win. The Orediggers were led by
Renata Boyd's two RBI and
Sydney Marchando's 2-for-4 game; Augustana was paced by Christina Pickett's 4-for-4, 4-RBI day. The Vikings had three triples in the game.
After Torri Chute's RBI triple in the first made it 1-0 Augustana, Mines answered as Boyd tripled home Marchando and
Hana Mawlawi in the bottom half to lead 2-1. Augie retook the lead on Kendall Cornick's triple and Chute's RBI groundout in the third, but
Clara Larson knocked in
Kailey Robb with a bases-loaded groundout in the fourth to tie it 3-3.
The Vikings put two across in the fifth, again on a triple as Pickett drove in Chute before she scored on a passed ball; in the sixth, Pickett smashed a bases-clearing double down the line in left before Amber Elliott singled in Kara McDougall.
Lauren Decker started for Mines and took no decision, allowing three runs over three innings;
Claire Stringfellow (0-3) entered to start the fourth and allowed four earned on six runs with a strikeout. Elliott (3-0) went five innings with four strikeouts, with Olivia Wolters throwing the sixth and seventh and allowing one hit.
NEXT UP
Mines hosts UCCS Saturday to start RMAC play.
