COLORADO SPRINGS - Colorado School of Mines and UCCS split their RMAC softball series on Sunday as both teams battled to wins at Mountain Lion Field.
The Orediggers (7-15, 7-7 RMAC) remained at .500 in conference play going 2-2 for the weekend. Mines played as the home team in both games after the series was relocated to Colorado Springs due to snow.
Sara Larson continued her torrid series as she drove in a run in the first game and then went 3-for-4 with a home run in game two. For the weekend, Larson hit .571 and slugged 1.143 with 10 RBI and a pair of home runs.
Sidney Wilson and
Kayleigh Krueger each drove in four runs on Sunday with big flies, and
Lauren Decker went a combined 5-for-7 with three runs scored.
UCCS' slugging was on display as they homered five times on the day including four in game one.
GAME 1 - UCCS 8, MINES 7
The Mountain Lions' four home runs, including Briana Mattos' solo go-ahead shot in the seventh, gave UCCS an 8-7 win in a see-saw battle to start the day.
The game featured four ties and five lead changes as it came down to who scored last, with UCCS overcoming a 7-4 Mines lead after four innings to score four over their last three at-bats.
Lauren Decker went 3-for-4 with two runs scored for Mines and
Emilee Sloan was 2-for-3 with a pair of runs and six different Orediggers had an RBI. UCCS had four different players go yard.
Mines got on the board first as
Sidney Wilson and
Sara Larson drove in runs in the bottom of the first, but Peyton Reisman's homer and an error put two runs up for UCCS on the second. Mines temporarily led again after Decker singled in Sloan in the second, but Sawyer Brewster led off the third with a home run to make it 3-3.
UCCS grabbed its first lead of the game on Morgan Hernandez-Belew's RBI double in the fourth before Mines had a big inning to score four thanks to RBI base hits by Sloan,
Renata Boyd, and
Kayleigh Krueger combined with a Mountain Lion error.
Down 7-4, UCCS chipped away with Courtnie Heller's two-run home run in the fifth, and Hernandez-Belew tied it on a single. That left the game at 7-7 heading into the seventh, and Mattos smashed a one-out homer to left to take the lead as Mines went down in order in the bottom half.
Both starters departed after four innings with
Sadriena Rodriguez striking out three and allowing three earned, and Braelyne Crenshaw whiffing two and allowing five earned. UCCS reliever Mackenzie Rutkoff earned the win with three innings of one-hit, four-strikeout relief, with
Cassidy Chvatal taking the loss throwing the last two innings but allowing only the single run.
GAME 2 - MINES 10, UCCS 2 (6 inn.)
The final game of the series was Mines' turn to slug the ball as they hit three home runs to run-rule UCCS 10-2 in six innings.
Kayleigh Krueger,
Sidney Wilson, and
Sara Larson all went deep to produce seven of Mines' 10 runs, and
Grace Gonzales' two-run double in the sixth walked it off. Both Krueger and Wilson drove in three runs to lead the offense, with
Renata Boyd and Larson each recording three-hit, two-run games.
Cassidy Chvatal (2-5) battled to the complete-game victory with four strikeouts. Lexi Rayburn (5-2) allowed eight in the loss with Gabrielle Cronin throwing 1.2 innings of relief.
Mines never trailed as Kruger's three-run blast took a 3-0 lead in the first. UCCS get on the board with Sawyer Brewster's solo home run to lead off the second, and she doubled in Mia Perez in the third to cut the Oredigger lead to 3-2.
The Orediggers stepped on the gas pedal after that, with
Hannah Roberts driving in Krueger in the third and both Wilson and Larson going long in the fourth to blow the game open at 8-2. Chvatal pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-outs pickle in the sixth unscathed thanks to a pair of strikeouts and a grounder, and that set up Gonzales to walk off with her bases-loaded two-run double in the sixth.
NEXT UP
Mines will travel to Northern Colorado for a non-conference doubleheader Tuesday at 3 p.m.
