GAME 1 - UCCS 5, Mines 0
Colorado School of Mines couldn't solve the pitching of Braelyne Crenshaw as UCCS earned a 5-0 shutout to start their series on Saturday.

The Mountain Lions generated 11 hits to just four by the Orediggers; Kayleigh Krueger and Sidney Wilson accounted for all of Mines' hits as each went 2-for-3. Brianna Santos led UCCS going 3-for-4 with two RBI. 

Crenshaw (4-3) struck out four and scattered four hits in the shutout win. Sydney Marchando (3-4) departed in the fourth with four strikeouts allowing four runs (two earned). Sadriena Rodriguez was effective in 2.2 innings of relief allowing one run.

It was a scoreless game into the third before UCCS broke the deadlock on RBI singles by Peyton Reisman and Taylor White; Santos homered in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-0, and Morgan Hernandez-Belew's single in the fifth made it 5-0. Mines stranded the bases loaded in the second but did not put a runner in scoring position after that.

GAME 2 - Mines 6, UCCS 4
A seventh-inning rally by the Orediggers capped by Stefanie Brunello's bases-loaded double gave Mines a 6-4 comeback win in the late afternoon.

Brunello was a triple short of the cycle going 3-for-4 with four RBI, leading off the game with a home run. Megan Dickson also went yard while Sidney Wilson was 2-for-3 with a key game-tying double in the top of the seventh.

Kayleigh Krueger (3-2) battled to a complete-game win, allowing three earned runs and striking out two in 111 pitches. UCCS starter Lexi Rayburn departed after two innings, with Cami Duffey (1-2) taking the loss in 4.1 innings of relief. Gabrielle Cronin got the final two outs in the seventh.

Brunello's leadoff bomb to left field put Mines on top to start, but UCCS tied it 1-1 in the bottom of the first when a throwing error on a stolen base allowed Brianna Santos to score. Dickson's homer came with one out in the second to lead 2-1, but UCCS used a longball of its own, a two-run shot by Solana Martinez, to go ahead 3-2 in the third.

The game stayed that way until the seventh when Mines mounted a one-out rally. With two on, Wilson smacked a double to the left-center gap to score Aubrey Karraker and tie the game, and two batters later with the bases loaded, Brunello went to the fence in the other direction to take a 6-3 lead. That left it up to Krueger in the bottom of the seventh, and despite Cambria Jeffers' solo home run to pull back a run, two excellent defensive plays by Wilson at second and Brunello at third ended the inning and secured the victory.

SCHEDULE ALERT
Sunday's doubleheader at UCCS has been moved up one hour to a 10 a.m. start in anticipation of winter weather moving into the region.